Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000
RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.
Countrymen,
ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT
OK, AMMO GRRRLL, some mansplaining and a mantra suggestion. An offer, not a requirement. I am not the burning bush. 🙂
Mind as a monkey (monkey mind) is a very ancient saying and metaphor. It references two monkey behaviors, both enemies of human quiet and happiness.
(1) Monkeys jump about hither and thither, without pattern, as impulse drives. The mind natively races around doing just that, as you well-describe. A person cannot be quiet until their mind ceases to jump about from thought to thought just as a monkey jumps about from branch to branch.
(2) Monkey infants are moved about by their mothers by clinging to their mothers’ backs. The infant must use its own strength to keep up as its mother jumps about. It ain’t easy growing up a monkey. One has to be physically strong right from the start, or else curtains.
The answer to (1) is a mantra — a phrase, a poem, a Name of God — that appeals to one and that is repeated, out loud or in the mind, continuously (St. Paul: pray without ceasing). Since you are not allowed to say or think the Name of God, your choice would be a phrase or a poem. Really, only one who knows you, and ultimately only you yourself, can initiate a mantra appropriate for you personally. However, a universal one, of which there are many, can be tried.
I think the closest of those to any one of us is the sound we make breathing. It is verbalized and thought as So Ham. So on the inspiration, Ham on the expiration. So is pronounced and thought so, as in so far …. The a of Ham, of course, is soft (ah), not hard (ass). Thinking those sounds while breathing quiets the mind, retards or prevents its leaping. It works to this effect also at night when the demons come or the mind goes into overdrive or some other manifestation of insomnia occurs.
The answer to (2) is the opposite sadhana (spiritual practice). Instead of being a monkey hanging on to mother’s (God’s) back as she leaps about, be a kitten, whose mother (God) picks up her, or him, in her mouth to move her infant from place to place. Good human mothers, obviously, are cats, not monkeys. The best human children are kittens. They have time enough later to be mothers and fathers themselves. Child years are for enjoying childhood, the essence of which is saturating in the mother’s love … if she will give it … and most American mothers do not, have not for decades, ergo the mess we have.
SJWs — aka Socialists and Salafists — were raised as monkeys by monkey mothers.
Update 1:Militant Snowflake: New Insignia For Social Justice Warrior
AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
