You’ve heard of the monkey mind, right?
It’s the Buddhist term meaning restless; unsettled; confused; inconstant; indecisive and somewhat uncontrollable. It’s that state when the ego thinks it’s in control and uses the mind (thoughts) as its conduit — a state most of us have found ourselves in from time to time (or, for some, all the time).
Monkey Business
Unfortunately, these ‘thoughts’ think they run the show (from the mind, which is running ape-shit — excuse the phrase but I had to). This impish-rogue, primate mind can only take you so far and no further. That’s why you can reach a stalemate in your life if you’re blocked from your higher states as the egoic mind is only a shadow of the higher mind — a pale and distorted reflection of sorts.
My penny just dropped about how I’ve been trying to manifest according to my unconscious (associated with beliefs), subconscious (associated with emotions) limiting beliefs.
Let me explain:
- I am more convinced than ever that reality is an illusion — a playground for our divine, little souls to run amok. Read related article: The Holographic Universe and The Illusion of Separation
- The only thing that is ‘real’ per se is our existence or oversoul/individual soul/higher self. Think of the SIMS game — you, the oversoul, are playing in virtual reality creating families, communities and playing with the concept of individuation and ‘life’.
- Now this ‘higher mind’ is the one with the overview (not the monkey mind or egoic mind — it can’t see further than your nose). Think of the higher self as the one standing on top of a skyscraper looking out on the city below — it can see all the streets and happenings taking place. Think of you, the part of the self in physical matter, as being on the ground — you’re level of perception is looking down an avenue and only seeing what is directly before you. You are not getting the birds eye view of the higher self up there gazing upon all possibilities below. Say for example (and this is going to be a very primitive example but you’ll get the idea): you want a coffee. The monkey mind can smell coffee brewing but takes you on a wild goose chase all over the city thinking it can pin point the location. If you had asked the higher self, it could have told you to take a right and a left and…Starbucks. Headquarters (the higher mind) can see the quickest route while monkey mind is still swinging from branch to branch.
- Let go of the monkey mind version of how you want your life to transpire and let in the guidance of the higher mind. The egoic mind can only create from past events. It has no idea of future infinite possibilities because it hasn’t been played out across the minds screen yet. That is why when you ask for something you shouldn’t try to conceive of how you’re going to get it — your job is only the asking or the ‘vision’ of what you want not how you’re going to manifest it. Only the higher mind can see the possibilities laid out before you. Have you ever manifested something by letting go of the control aspect? Did you find that you could never have dreamed it possible to show up in the way it did and were fascinated at all the signs and synchronicities (read related article: Why Synchronicity Can Change Your Life) that led you to said manifestation? That’s because your higher self has the overview and not the ego mind.
- When you let go and tap into your intuition, cultivating a bond between physical mind and higher mind, you will allow infinite possibilities and realities to flow through you without the resistance and persistence of the monkey mind getting in the way. The ego thinks it knows everything but it doesn’t, it is only necessary to keep you in physicality (as far as I can tell). This means that we need the ego to keep us on earth or we’d probably want to go back home — you get my drift, right?
- So, let the higher mind pick out the destination (it knows what you came here to do, so let it do its job), you need to be open to receive the package via the physical mind and then interpret it through the physical experience. It’s really quite simple — law of least effort type stuff, savvy?
I recently applied this monkey mind vs. higher mind stuff to one of my life situations and had to laugh. I was trying to conceive the situation as ‘thus’ (via my chimp noodle) when the situation was ‘this’ (something completely different and couldn’t have possibly conceived through the ego mind until I let the higher mind speak up). Suffice it to say, I was WAY off course but things slipped into understanding when I got out of my own way.
So, how do you get out of the ego mind and step into the higher mind?
Easy! Have fun…lot’s of it!
