The meditative puppy mind

This weekend, I met my friend’s new 8-week old black pug, Tallulah.    She was the most precious thing I’ve ever seen.  Full of energy and light.  Her eyes revealed a true purity of soul with a tinge of mischief.   Like babies, everything is new to a puppy.  Everything is for the taking, the chewing, the absorbing. Puppies have two speeds: spaz and sleep.  It’s awesome.  But as I was holding Tallulah who was vacillating between calmly chewing on my finger, and a tiny twirling black tornado, I started to think about her energy as it relates to my own meditation.

If you’ve practiced yoga for sometime, or if you have a regular meditation practice, you’ve no doubt heard the term “monkey mind.”   Monkey mind is a euphemism for a state of being in which your thoughts take over.  You become immersed in your mind often to the point of anxiety; focus is gone.

As I came out of meditation today, I was in a state of deep rest, but the rest doesn’t come without cycles of thought and stillness.  I thought about hurricane Tallulah and how her boundless energy seemed to have a life of its own with no starting or ending point (except sleep).   Our minds are a lot like that.   Thoughts can turn into a whirlwind of destruction; seemingly out of nowhere.

Admittedly, when I’ve used the term “monkey mind” in the past, I’ve done so with a bit of judgement (typically aimed at my own unsettled coconut.)  In the past few days however, I’m observing my thought cycles during meditation with the same entertained compassion as I have when Talullah is chewing on my finger while trying to wriggler out of my grasp.

My puppy mind can be a ball of endless activity if I let it run amok.  Instead, I — the observer — am learning to witness the shenanigans with love and acceptance.

Let your puppy mind do it’s thing and embrace when it finds rest, if even for a moment.

Namaste.

– Your Charmed Yogi