The Monkey Mind Meditation

Mindfulness with the breathe

You are listening to “The Monkey Mind” - a meditation podcast where we learn meditation techniques and practice with guided sessions to slow down our mind to  attain a state of stillness.  Meditation could reset our beliefs, attitudes and mindset  creating balance between success and happiness in our lives.  This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com. publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

Now, let us begin our meditation session.  Make yourself comfortable.

You may sit on a straight back chair or on a firm cushion on the floor.  If you are sitting on the floor, start my adjusting your sitting position into a meditation posture. With your legs folded into a Cross-legged position, with your right foot resting over the bent left leg.

If you are sitting on a chair, sit comfortably with your feet  squarely planted in front of you,  without leaning against the back of the chair.

Keep your back straight and chin tilted down slightly, resting the head comfortably on the shoulder.

Place the back of the left palm gently on your lap, with your fingers straight. Rest the right palm over the left palm, with the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of the left thumb.

Very slowly and gently, close your eyes, without squeezing them too tightly, as if you are about to doze off to sleep

Gently take 3 deep breathes by Inhaling through your nose and slowly exhaling through your lips. feeling the relaxation as you breathe out.

Allow the air to fill your lungs completely when you inhale. Feeling the abdomen rising as the air turns around.  Maintain your awareness of the middle of the abdomen by observing the air turning.  Just observing softly and gently, without any force or sense of time pressure.

Imagine you are sitting alone at your favourite place in the world.

And although you are all alone you feel very safe, at ease and secure.

Imagine that the air that surrounds you is filled with peace and stillness.

Each  time you inhale, every single cell in your body smiles with happiness and joy. 

And each time you exhale, you exhale away all of your cares  your worries.

Notice that the breathe brings our consciousness to the present moment.  As we maintain a soft attention on each breathe,  let it lead us along the path where the air flows into our nostril, through our lungs and filling up our abdomen.

Continue to breathe gently feeling the body starting to be more and more relax.

Allow any thoughts in the mind to float downward towards the abdomen.. dissolving and disappearing  as they reach the center of the stomach.

Keep you mind at the center of the stomach, feeling comfortable and relax.  There is no need to do anything. Let it go.  Let it be.

If the mind starts to wander away with a thought, or hear a voice or seen an image, gently bring it back to follow the breathe. You may do this by observing the air or the path of the breathe.   Feeling the sensation of lightness as air enters your body.  A sensation like balloon getting larger as air fills it up.

Breathing in… breathing out.  In… out… slowly and gently continue to meditate in silence for a few moments.

Continue to be in touch with the nice and good feeling you now have with meditation.

Keeping your mind steady and still inside your body.  Take a few more slow deep breathes.  With each breathe, bring your awareness back to the present.  Be aware of the outline of the body.  The seat you are sitting on. The room you are in and the air around you. And

When you are ready, slowly and gently open your eyes.

Episode 6.  7th Base : The home of the mind

This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com. publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

 

There is an invisible path that we could practice to lead our consciousness to the home of the mind.  It is at a position, geometrically center of our body.  Think of an imaginary horizontal thread that enters the navel from the front of our abdomen area and exit the back of our spine.  Think a second imaginary horizontal line that runs from the left to the right side of our body and intersects with the first line from the navel, in the middle of the abdomen, inside our body. 

This point where the line intersect  is the 6th base on the path of the mind.  Directly above this point, at distant about the width of 2 fingers (the index and middle finger) is the 7th base. This is the point that is the center of our body. And it is also the home of our mind.

We bring the mind to the 7th base during meditation to re-familiarise the mind to its home.  Our daily busyness has distracted the mind to leave its home for too long resulting short attention spans and wandering mind.  When we practice complete relaxation of the body,  empty our thoughts and silence our inner voices, we will experience the complete stillness of the mind at this point.

Let us begin our path to the 7th base of the mind.

Its inner peace time.

Get into your favourite meditation posture.  Clear your mind of any commitments and things to do.  Tell your self:  For the next few minutes, I do not need to attend to anything, and there is no rush to get to anywhere.  Just be here and let go of the world around me. 

Breathe in slowly and deeply. Keep your eyes looking at a spot infant of you, without focusing on any particular object.  Just keep it soft and defocus.  Slowly, the eyes lids would close naturally, touching very softly and lightly - like the delicate wings of a butterfly opening and closing as it rests on a flower.

To guide the mind, let’s visualise a mental object.

Imagine a small clear round object. Like a crystal ball or a clear dew drop.  You may imagine any other other object that comes to mind easily.  Make this object small, like the size of a small pea.  Imagine that this mental object is floating in front of your face.  Look at it and feel comfortable with it using it as the object of focus to guide our attention along a path into our body.  Imagine its is perfect round, clear, transparent and bright.

Place this small object at a point just under our nostril.  The right  nostril for men and left nostril for women. Tis is the first base on the path of the mind.

Take in 3 deeps breaths and recite the mantra, Samma Arahang, which means “pure and virtuous”.  Or you may use “clear and bright” as the mantra.  Repeat the mantra 3 times with each breath.

Allow this object to move into the nostril up the nose between the eyes, and let it rest at the inner corner of the right eye for men and left eye for women.  This is the 2nd base of the path of the mind. Breath in slowly each time recite the mantra. Let this object be as clear and bright as possible while repeating the mantra 3 times. Samma Arahang. Samma Arahang.. SammaArahang.

 

Now imagine a point at the center of the head, directly behind the eyes.  Allow the object to move to this place, which is the 3rd base of the mind.  Imagine that this object radiates brightly as you recite the mantra 3 times. samma arahang. Samma arahang.. samma arahang.

 

Continue to maintain relax as you breath.  Just let the mind follow this path comfortably, without questioning or resting.  Just feeling very safe to go along this familiar path.

 

The 4th position of the mind is directly down a vertical path that leads to the roof behind our month.  Let the object be radiating every so brightly as we rest here a moment and relaxing.  When you are ready, take 3 deep breath while repeating the mantra with each exhalation, samma arahang. Samma arahang.. samma arahang..  Imagining the sounds coming out from the center of this pure clear object.

Slowly let this object to drift down a vertical path to a point behind the voice box, at the throat. This is the 5th position of the mind.  Imagine the light from the object spreading all around from here as we comfortably continue the rhythm of breathing and hearing the soothing sound of the mantra spreading from here… samma arahang. Samma arahang.. samma arahang.

From here, the crystal object will descend downwards towards the 6th base, which is the intersection of the line from the navel and the sides at the abdomen.  Taking all the time you need, imagine the object drifting towards this base and touching it as gently the a soft and light feather of a bird,  floating down, lightly touching the surface of a still pond.  Imagine this object is perfect clear, pure and radiating brightly.  With the sound of the mantra softly coming from the center, samna arahang, samna arahang, samna arahang.

Allow the mind to rest here for as long as it needs. Maintain a gentle awareness of this place.  There is no need to look with the eyes. Let your consciousness lead you in the darkness with the brightness of the crystal ball guiding you to stay at this location.  Naturally, if you feel a sense of lightness let it be. Do not resist. Or a sensation of expanding and growing let it be.  Your mind may naturally lift itself upwards along the path to the 7th base, the distant of 2 finger’s width above the 6th base. 

Whether your mind stays at 6th or 7th position, it does not really matter.  Maintain a mindset of letting go. Do not take control or feel a need to go anywhere.  maintain a state of relaxation, and clear the mind of any thoughts by continuously thinking of this crystal ball, listening to the mantra, and reciting it if it helps to silence other thoughts.  when you are very still, without wandering, questioning, analysing, just being and feeling completely content with doing nothing, the mind will go home by itself.  All you have to do is to be here, enjoy the sensation and experience the blissful lightness of happiness. Just be happy and keep a slight smile on the face.

Episode 5. Dealing with sleepiness

This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com. publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

The four most common causes of Sleepiness are :

A full tummy.  After a heavy meal it natural to feel sleepiness because the body is busy working on digesting the food, redirecting blood away from the brain.  So try not to have a heavy meal before meditation.

Fatigues. When our body or muscles are physically tired from work or exercises they need to rest.  Meditation helps the tired muscles to relax triggers the organs including the brain to slow down…which lead to falling asleep.  Do some stretching exercises before meditating.  Or do walking meditation.  Which will be covered in another episode.

Intoxicant.  Alcohol and other drowsy medicine could cause sleepiness too.  Do not meditate after you have consume intoxicants.  Or even better, do not consume intoxicants.

Lack of Sleep.  If you have not been sleeping well, then sleepiness could arise during meditation.  Just go to sleep and have a good rest before attempting to meditate.

Don’t work too hard to fight sleepiness during meditation.  You could come back to meditate another time.

I found that a good and hard stretching of the body and joints before meditation helps with a tired body.  If you find drinking Coffee or a strong tea help with sleepiness, go ahead have a drink before meditating.  Personally, coffee does very little to help me with sleepiness.

Let’s prepare our body for meditation by some stretching exercises.  Put your palms together in a prayer position, place them next to your chest in front of you. Take in a deep breathe and Raise   both arms straight above our head reaching up to the sky with your head upright looking forward.  Breathe out.  Pull you spine upwards and your shoulders as high as you can.  Bring the arms down to the front of your chest with your palms together in a prayer position.  Repeat this upward stretch 2 more times.  As high as you can stretch for the sky. Breathe out.  Stretch a little higher, and higher.  And bring the arms down and relax. And one final time, stretch upwards, breathing out. Higher, higher. And even higher.. and Relax and bring your hands down to your side.  Clasp both your palms behind your back, and stretch your arms back by pulling them as far back as you could away from your body. Feel the shoulder blades squeezing together and the chest expanding.  Relax by bringing the hands down to your spine.  Repeat this stretch 2 more times.  Stretch back, further and further.  Breathing out as you push your palms away from you.  Relax.  And one final time squeezing the shoulders and stretching the chest.  Breathe out.

Finally, place your hands on your knee. Relax and begin to stretch your neck by turning your head to the right, trying to touch the chin on the right shoulder.  Now turn you head to the left.. try to touch the chin on the left shoulder.  Repeat this 2 more times.  Breathing out as you feel the neck muscles stretched.

Let us begin our meditation session now.

Episode 4.  Meditation Posture Physical Strength

This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com - the publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

For the mind to be still, the body must be strong and balance.  Four parts of the body that most affects balance of our posture during meditation are The face, the Neck and shoulder, spine, and the legs. 

The facial muscles reflects the internal tension inside the mind.   Over concentration causes the the eyes to squint and eye-lids to tighten.   Begin by relaxing the forehead and eyebrow.  Release the tensions by relaxing the muscles around the eyes .  Relax the cheeks by putting a slight smile on the lips. Allow the jaws and teeth to slacken and hang loose

The neck keeps the head upright bearing 10-12 pounds of its weight.   If not balanced, it could exert up to 50 pounds force on the neck.  Adjust the position of the head to a perfect balance point where the head is not too forward and not too backwards - a point where the eyes is looking straight ahead.  With a balanced neck, the shoulders could drop into a slope, reducing excess tension on the shoulder blades and the chest.

The spine like the neck needs to be erect and upright.  Not leaning too far back or forward. When our spine is balance, the mass from the upper body would feel weightless on the spine.  One way is to thrust the stomach and chest slightly forward while pulling back the shoulders creating a gentle S-shape on the spine.  This would support the body better than leaning on a wall or the back rest of a chair.

Finally, fold the legs in a cross legged position with one leg over the other (right leg over the left or the other way round).  Sit on a firm cushion about 1-3 inches thick.  Allow the folded part to the legs to lay flat on the floor outside of the cushion.  This is also called the semi-lotus position.  This posture distributes the weight of the body evenly across the points of contact with the ground, providing a good balance.

Now that you are a mediation posture, let’s begin our meditation.

Take a few deep breathes to center yourself. Bringing your mind into the center of your abdomen.

Very slowly and gently, allow your eye lids to touch without squeezing them too tight.

Bring your consciousness to the breath. Gently breathing in and our - slow and deep.  In and out. In and out.

Feel that you are at the center of your abdomen, the control center of the mind. 

Maintain the mind here. You may imagine a crystal ball sitting in the middle of the abdomen.

And the gentle sound of a mantra coming from the center of the crystal ball…..Clear and bright. Clear and bright. Clear bright.

Continue Breathing and noticing the gentle rising of the abdomen with each breathe.

Sense the outline of your body, sitting in perfect posture. Relaxing the muscles as you scan your body starting from the head to your toes.  Feeling the muscles of the face relaxed. Balance the head on the neck and shoulders, straighted spine,  relax the chest and the abdomen. Scan and relax the arms the way to the tips of the fingers.  Relax the muscles on the buttocks, thighs, calves, foot and all the way to the toes.   Relax completely feeling no tension on every single strand of muscle.  You may shift your body weight on the cushion by gently rocking forward and backward, continuously finding that perfect point of balanced where the weight disappears.

Breathing in and out.  Feeling light and soft.

Imagine the outline of your body beginning to soften against the background. Almost dissolving into a faint line, feeling like it is hollow and empty. Like an empty vessel or a helium balloon.  experiencing a sensation of lightness and emptiness.  Continue to stay this way, balanced, light, empty and hollow.

Every breath brings the mind comes back to the Present, at the center of the abdomen.

feeling peaceful, safe and balance. No need to go anywhere, just being here. Let it be, let it go.  Continue to stay like this.. comfortable, light. Simple . Empty.  Balance. Now. Here. relax.

Episode 3 Wandering Mind.

The Monkey Mind is a production of TheCEOMonk.com. The publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

Our mind is constantly in motion.  We think, analyse, make assumptions, have inner conversations, make decisions and judgements.  Sometimes we are more logical, where the sequence of thoughts follows the order of see, think, and act.  Other times we may be less rationale, where we say before thinking.  Or act before explaining our intentions.

Our Minds, is like a young monkey, constantly jumping from branches to branches, moving their arms, legs, or tail, and always curious for anything interesting. Like the curious monkey the mind is is constantly thinking of many things, making assumptions, judgements and conclusions.  The mind respond to inputs from our 5 senses of sight, sounds, smell, taste and touch.   We are always looking for any opportunity to “do something”. 

Do you find yourself listening to multiple conversations, even to those across another table. Does your car radio channel plays in the background while you are driving? Do you work and study with music streaming through your ear phones.  The mind crave for sounds.

The mind processes over 60,000 brain signals, or thoughts, per day.  That’s about 1 thought for every breathe we take.  Imagine our brain and mind are parts of a computer.  The brain is the hardware, while the mind is the software.  Our 5 senses behave as input devices, like the keyboard, mouse, sound card, video card, and fingerprint sensors.  The software synthesises these input signals as data and passes them through programmed logics, to produce the desired output. 

Similarly our mind processes the signals from our 5 organs as data and decides how we response to them.  The response could be fight or flee when when we felt threatened. The response could be smile or frown when we heard a feedback about us.  Or we could react by shouting and doing hi-fives when the football game on TV showed a winning goal by our favourite team.

Why do we want to tame the Monkey Mind? 

Who controls our behaviours? Does our minds influences what we think and act? Or do our actions influence our mindsets?  Some behavioural experts claim that our beliefs program our mind to think in a certain way.  Beliefs creates attitudes and mindsets.  These Beliefs, attitudes and mindsets  influence our actions.  The actions we could take are: thinking, speaking, doing, moving, fighting, frowning or feeling happy, angry or sad.  Etc

These actions in turn result in outcome that are desirable or undesirable.  These outcomes form an Experience, which are either good experience , neutral experiences or bad experiences.  These Experiences will strengthen our original Beliefs or weaken them -  when repeated, could result in the mind changing the Beliefs .  It is like reprogramming the mind.  Our mind listens to these Beliefs just like our computer respond to the software app that was installed.  If a virus program was installed by accident, it messes up the entire computer.  A virus software program installed in the computer is similar to a belief installed in our mind by the repeated bad experiences.  A great software installed in our computer, wold be similar to a Good Belief installed in our mind by having great experiences.

During meditation, to prevent the mind from wandering, we need to give it something to do.  We use visualisation and repeating of a mantra.  A mantra is nothing more than a phrase to keep the audio channel of the mind occupied.  And visualisation is to keep the visual channel of the mind busy,

Now being our mediation with visualisation and r  mantra.

Now, adjust your clothing and sitting position and make yourself comfortable.  You may sit on the floor or on a chair.  You may sit on in the semi-lotus position by folding in your legs towards you and placing your right leg over the left bent knee.  If you are sitting on a chair, sit with your back straight without leaning on the backrest of the chair.

Now place your left hand on your lap with your palm open and facing upwards. With your right palm open and facing upwards, place it on top of your left palm.  Allow the index finger of the right hand to gently touch the tip of the left thumb.  You may place a small towel on your lap if you feel more natural. Adjust your arms all the way up to your shoulders keeping them a slack and relax.

Let us begin our meditation session now.

Its inner peace time.

Imagine you are taking a walk in park in the morning.  The air is cool fresh surrounded by greenery and colourful flowers.  A bright warm ray of the morning sun peek past the dense foliage of the mahogany tree.  A tiny drop of clear morning dew hanging at the tip of a leave captures this ray and sparkles brightly.  As you move closer to observe this sparkle, you felt a sensation of calmness inside the center of your abdomen.  Sitting down, you decided to meditate.

Take 3 slow and deep breathes.

Very slowly allow your eye lids to close touching gently as if you are dozing off to sleep.  Do not squeezing them tight.  Just feel comfortable and relax. Let your mind rest for the next few moments. Let go of any thoughts - do not question, do not doubt, do not analyse.

Inhale deeply filling your lungs with fresh and cool air.  Allowing the air to flow through your nose, through your lungs, reaching the bottom of your abdomen.  Keep your awareness here observing the air turning around as you breathe out, releasing all tensions from your body.

Continue breathing feeling the sparkle of that bright dew dancing at the tips of the leave.  Gently, visualise this dew drop inside the middle of your abdomen. Just floating inside here, clear, pure and bright. just allow this image stay inside the abdomen, and observe it as your abdomen rises and falling with each breathe.  Allow the mind to stay here, floating lightly,  with the clear pure bright dew.  Feeling peaceful and free.

If the mind started to wander ..bring it back gently to this bright clear dew.

There is not need to go anywhere. No need to do anything.  No need to answer any questions.

Feel that your mind is the drop of dew, clear, bright and pure.

Like a clear crystal ball.

Just be here.

Repeat this mantra “Clear and Bright -  Pure and light” continuously.

You may observe the dew drop by sensing with your consciousness without seeing it with your eyes.  Just know its presence - and feel the radiance and its brightness. 

If the mind begins to wander, recite the mantra to bring the mind back to the crystal clear dew drop.  Feeling the radiance spreading from the center of your abdomen.  Clear and Bright.  Pure and transparent.

Continue to meditate in silence for a few moments.

Clear and bright, clear and bright, slowly, bring your awareness back to the center of the abdomen.   Feel the outline of your body becoming clearer.  As you bring your awareness back to your sitting position and the place you are sitting.  Gently, take 3 deep slow breathes.  And when you are ready… gently open your eyes.

This is the end of the meditation session.  Be thankful for your experiences and the time spent today. Continue to wear a smile throughout the day.   Whatever the experiences you encounter during this session do not be attached to them.  Attachments create expectations. Which make it hard to “let go” and relax in your next meditation.  Throughout the day, try to return the mind to the  center of your abdomen - which is also the home of the mind.

 

The Monkey Mind is a production of TheCEOMonk.com. The publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

Episode : Setting Up The Body

This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

Now, let’s begin meditation.

You may sit on a straight back chair or on a firm cushion on the floor.  If you are sitting on the floor, start my adjusting your sitting position into a meditation posture. With your legs folded into a Cross-legged position, with your right foot resting over the bent left leg.

If you are sitting on a chair, sit comfortably with your feet  squarely planted in front of you,  without leaning against the back of the chair.

Keep your back straight and chin tilted down slightly, resting the head comfortably on the shoulder.

Place the back of the left palm gently on your lap, with your fingers straight. Rest the right palm over the left palm, with the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of the left thumb.

Breathe in deeply and slowly.  feel the relaxation as you breathe out.

Very slowly and very gently, close your eyes, without squeezing them too tightly, as if you are about to doze off to sleep.

Breathe in by Inhaling through your nose and breathe out by exhaling through your lips or nose.

Allow the air to fill you lungs completely when you inhale.

Imagine you are sitting alone at your favourite place in the world where you feel completely at ease, safe, and happy.

Imagine that the air that surrounds you is filled with peace and stillness

Let's begin to Relax every muscle in your body…. letting go of any signs of tension.

Start by relaxing the muscles on the TOP of your head. …..scanning down the body.. relax your forehead

Relax your eyelids…..And the muscle at the side of the eyes.

Relax your cheeks …..And your lips

Allow your Chin and jaws to be loose and slack.

Begin to loosen the muscles around your neck. …And in your shoulders

Feel the relaxation spreading to your upper arms and around your elbows,

Down to the lower arms, around your wrists, to your palms and and all the way out to the tips of the fingers.

Begin to relax the muscles in the chest and your trunk.

Relax your shoulder blades …. And all the muscles along your back

Loosen the muscles around your waist,  stomach and  …..All the way down to your hips.

Relax

Loosen the muscles of your buttocks ….And feel the relaxation spreading down to your thighs….to your knees

Down to through the calves …. around your ankles … To your feet and all the way out to the tip of your toes.

Relax

Allow every single muscle in your body to be… loose …. slack……relax. . pause

Just sit here without feeling the need to do anything.  Let it be.  Let everything go. Just be here.

Breathing gently.  Keeping the awareness at the center of the stomach, inside the abdomen. 

Let the mind sit here. comfortably and relax.

Breathe in.. Breathe out.. imagine all the cells in your body smiling happily..

keep a slight smile on your lips as you continue to mediate in silence .. till the end of time.

Clear and bright. Soft and happy.   Slowly, bring your awareness back to your body.  Starting from the center of the abdomen.   Feel the outline of your body becoming clearer.  Be aware of your chest rising and falling with each breathe.  Bring your awareness back to your sitting position, your body, and the place you are sitting. When you are ready… gently open your eyes.

This is the end of the meditation session.  Be thankful for your experiences and the time spent today.  Whatever the experiences you have during this session do not be attached to them.  Attachments create expectations that make it hard to “let go” during meditation.  Throughout the day whenever you can, bring the mind back to the  center of your abdomen - the home of the mind - and maintain a gentle smile on your lips.

Episode 1: The Breath

Brought to you by https://theceomonkbook.com

Now, let's begin meditation.

You may sit on a straight back chair or on a firm cushion on the floor.  If you are sitting on the floor, start my adjusting your sitting position into a meditation posture. With your legs folded into a Cross-legged position, with your right foot resting over the bent left leg.

If you are sitting on a chair, sit comfortably with your feet  squarely planted in front of you,  without leaning against the back of the chair.

Keep your back straight and chin tilted down slightly, resting the head comfortably on the shoulder.

Place the back of the left palm gently on your lap, with your fingers straight. Rest the right palm over the left palm, with the index finger of the right hand touching the tip of the left thumb.

Very slowly and gently, close your eyes, without squeezing them too tightly, as if you are about to doze off to sleep

Gently take 3 deep breathes by Inhaling through your nose and slowly exhaling through your lips. feeling the relaxation as you breathe out.

Allow the air to fill your lungs completely when you inhale.

Imagine you are sitting alone at your favourite place in the world. And although you are all alone you feel very safe, at ease and secure

Imagine that the air that surrounds you is filled with peace and stillness

Imagine time you inhale, every single cell in your body smiles with happiness and joy. 

And each time you exhale, you exhale away all of your cares  your worries.

Every breathe brings our consciousness to the present. Focus softly on each breathe, following the path where the air flows into our nostril, through our lungs and filling up our abdomen.

Continue to breathe gently as your body begins to relax.

Allow any thoughts that enters the mind to float downward .. dissolving and disappearing  as they reach the center of the stomach.

Keep you mind at the center of the stomach, feeling comfortable and relax.  There is no need to do anything. Let it go.  Let it be.

If the mind starts to drift with a thought, a voice or image inside the mind, gently bring your attention back to the breathe. You may do this by imagining the air entering your nose. Or feeling the lightness as air enters your body like filling up a balloon.

Breathing in… breathing out.  In… out… slowly and gently continue to meditate in silence for a few moments.

Continue to be in touch with the nice and good feeling you now have with meditation.

Keeping your mind steady and still inside your body.  Take a few more slow deep breathes.  With each breathe, bring your awareness back to the present.  Be aware of the outline of the body.  The seat you are sitting on. The room you are in and the air around you. And

When you are ready, slowly and gently open your eyes.

The Monkey Mind is meditation podcast to train the mind to slow down and be Still.  When the mind is Still  clarity arises, and we experience a sense of inner peace and happiness.   This is a production of TheCEOMonk.com, the publisher of the book:  “A CEO, an Entrepreneur, a Tourist and the Monk.

Introduction to Meditation.

There are many meditation methods being practiced all over the world and is not restricted to any race or religion.  I used to look at meditation as an activity, like working out at the gym or attending a yoga class.  The techniques had helped me to ease stress and tensions in my life.  In the past 3 years, my journey in meditation took a drastic turn when I decided to go deeper by spending a year to learn meditation from Monks in temples and forest in Thailand.  In 2017, the sudden death of my Mom created a vacuum in my life that lead me towards this path.  Having many unanswered question about life and death, I turned towards books and religion, only to be disappointed when these information lead me towards “believe” and “faith” base theology - with no explanations that I could A talkaccept.

A talk by a Monk at a meditation center, Dhammakaya Center in Singapore, convinced me that meditation is the key to the door into deeper understanding of the Law of life and death - a law that was not explained by religion, science or maths.  There was only one path to be fully indulge in learning meditation - The path of a monk’s life.

It took he half a year to cleared all of my personal and business commitments in order to be   ordain as a Theravada Monk with a temple, Dhammakaya temple - to learn the simple ways of a monk’s life and was hoping that the simplicity would help me empty my mind, cleanse it, and attain complete stillness, and maybe give me a new perspective to redesign how to live the rest of my life.

We immersed in an intensive 45-day training as a monk.  Head completely shaved, wore only saffron robe, slept in a 1-men size tent, ate from alms donated, chanted buddha’s scriptures and meditated daily.  The most difficult part of that journey was not having a watch to tell time and a phone to stay in contact with anyone.  Waking up at 4am and eating only 2 meals was less difficult than I had expected.  The second most difficult was to keep the mind from passing judgements and expressing opinions on everything.   

After completing the 45-day training, I disrobed and return to my normal life.  Everything outside had not changed a bit, yet everything inside me had changed.  Today, I continue to practice and spread the knowledge meditation to help more people attain the inner peace that we all had ignored and forgotten. 

Most people seek happiness by working hard to attain success.  We pursue goals that we set.  Aspire to be in position higher than our current.  Acquire objects we want to own.  It could be money, wealth, assets, relationship, or dreams of being somebody of importance.  And in this journey, we refuse to be happy for who we are today.  By wanting things we do not have, we create discontentment of what we currently own.  Hence we are perpetually never satisfied or happy with ourselves. 

Meditation would help the mind to settle down to a state of stillness.  When we learn to meditate, we learn not to Stir up the dust around our life.  Eventually, we even learn to simplify our needs, so as not to clutter our life with more dust or desires.  So the combination of less dust and less stirring create clearer mind, which translates to a life that is happier and more content.

The Monkey Mind Podcast

This podcast contains episodes of guided meditations suitable for beginners, new practitioner and experience meditators.  They are re-scripted and translated from compilation from many meditation masters during my past 2 years meditation in forest, temples, and private sessions.  These voice recordings had guided me to maintain a consistent commitment to daily meditation after the Monkhood training  - The different instructions in each new episodes offer different angle to meditation, motivating the mind to look forward to new episodes as a companion.

Format:

Each episode has a title indicating the purpose of the meditation.  A short teaching of techniques before we begin to meditate with the voice guided instruction and background music.  Sessions could last from 10mins to 30 mins - depending on the topic.

How to use:

You may use these sessions whichever way they suit your styles and preferences.  Here are 3 suggested ways you could get started:

Sequentially: Play each episode from beginning to end as one meditation practice.  The duration ranges from 10, 20, 30 minutes.  Recommend to do it in the morning just as you wake up or evening just before you sleep. 

Favourite list: Play a different episode everyday.  Save your favourite episode into a favourite playlist.  You may repeat your favourite episode by playing from the playlist

Mix and combine episodes. For long meditation, you may create a special playlist by adding selected episodes in any order you preferred.  Set auto-play on your audio player.  This would allow uninterrupted playback for all episodes on the playlist.

Finally. 

I had listened to these episodes many times, meditating as I record and correcting glitches while adding new ones each time I return from my quarterly week-long meditation retreats in the forests.

I am sharing these audio track in this podcast to enable you the listener to learn to meditate and continue practicing meditation daily.   I wish everyone meditates daily. It is an effective solution to manage anger and stress, while providing a clearer mind to make wise decision daily.

You may Start your meditation practice by playing the  first episode.

The  Monkey Mind podcast is a production of TheCEOMonk.com.