Monkey Mind

Lately, my meditation has been a storm of images, half-formed thoughts, and creative ideas—flashes of insight that tempt me to grasp them, as if each were a revelation. It’s often easy to believe the “monkey mind” is an obstacle, something to be tamed or overcome. But in Zen, it is not a problem at all.

Shikantaza (just sitting) is not about silencing the mind but allowing everything to arise and pass freely. Thoughts appear, sensations come and go, the world turns, and I sit, neither pushing away nor holding on. In doing so, I realize that these passing thoughts, however dazzling, are mere ripples on the surface of something boundless.

When I don’t chase or resist, I touch something far more profound than the contents of my mind. I rest in the vast openness of being itself —the place where nothing is separate and nothing is missing.