The teacher in the quiet room tells us:
“Turn off your monkey mind.
Bring your attention to the moment.
What do you hear, see, feel, smell, taste?”
And I think: Wut? Are most people tuned out to what they hear, see, feel, smell, taste?
I am tuned in to everything, all the time. If you were sitting here, I would hear and see you. And also, I would hear the droning refrigerator in the kitchen, and the high-pitched electrical hum that’s whining in the walls that makes my blood cringe. I’d try hard to follow your words, but all the sensory static would be clamoring — the sunlight, heating half my brain through the side window — cars whoosh past like ocean waves crashing — a neighbor in his yard laughing — Sensory static floods my monkey mind and drowns the monkeys.
The mindfulness teacher says, “Try to accept everything that comes to you.”
I try. It’s a prerequisite of being able to function in the world.
But no kidding here and no monkeying around: it’s exhausting!