Monkey Mind and Froglessness

How many times have you sat down with the intention of meditating, inviting the sound of silence to surround you and penetrate your being when suddenly you found your mind racing with uninvited thoughts? You remember the events of the day, or what happened yesterday, or even years ago. You think about that project you have been working on. You recall a pleasant conversation you had a day or so ago. You see the face of a person you recently met. Your "to-do" list keeps poking you. Countless thoughts swirl around, tugging at your mind like little preschoolers demanding attention from you. The Buddha aptly called this experience "monkey mind," and reminded us that while it is perfectly normal and there is no need to become frustrated over it, we can work to gently slow our thoughts, eventually gaining control over them, at least for the most part. There are three ways that I have found helpful in the process of slowing down my monkey mind. 

• The first way comes from the Centering Prayer tradition of Christianity. Each time you recognize a thought demanding your attention, first acknowledge the thought and then imagine placing the thought on a barge. In your mind's eye, watch the barge carry your thought downriver. As the barge floats out of sight, call up your "word of intention" or focus word and silently repeat it to yourself to refocus your meditation or Centering.   
• A second way to address your monkey mind is to gently acknowledge the thought that wiggled into your silence and then turn your attention to your breath. Attend to your in-breath and out-breath as a way to return to your meditation. 
• A third way is playfully, yet effectively named, "Froglessness". Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that we are to strive for the attainment of "froglessness." He says that froglessness is the first attainment in the practice of mindfulness meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that our thoughts are like a frog on a plate. When you put a frog on a plate, it will not remain there. Rather, it will jump to another location. As we practice mindfulness, we give our intention to the practice of silence but like a frog, in a few seconds, it jumps off. When this happens, we gently pick up our intention and place it back on the plate. Given much time and patience with ourselves, we will attain froglessness, if only for a few seconds longer. (Thich Nhat Hanh's poem on this teaching can be found at the end of this post.)

Try using these ways, or one of your own, to intentionally practice meditation (the sound of silence). Practice it every day. If you need to, start with 5 minutes-- or even one or two minutes. Do not worry about whether or not you are doing it "right". It's not about "rightness"; it's about practicing it in your in your life. In time, you will yearn for the sound of silence and then the related practice of mindfulness will seep into every aspect of your life, not just the times when you intentionally stop to be silent. 

Froglessness
The first fruition of the practice
is the attainment of froglessness.

When a frog is put
on the center of a plate,
she will jump out of the plate
after just a few seconds.

If you put the frog back again
on the center of the plate,
she will again jump out.

You have so many plans.
There is something you want to become.
Therefore you always want to make a leap,
a leap forward.

It is difficult
to keep the frog still
on the center of the plate.
You and I 
both have Buddha Nature in us.
This is encouraging,
but you and I both have Frog Nature in us.

That is why
the first attainment 
of the practice-- 
froglessness is its name. 

(Source: Thich Nhat Hanh. Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1999), 180.