Buddha describes a Monkey Mind, reaching for the next branch hold before the last one has been firmly attained. Restless, maybe directionless; motion above all else.
The Monkey Trap is perhaps especially effective for that monkey mind. Monkey reaches into a narrow space after a valuable prize, but the space is too small to retrieve the prize clutched in the monkey fist. Monkey is trapped by his own thinking, not of where he is at that time but where he wants to be, free with the prize.
Some times I’m trapped. My Monkey Mind is a function of depression. I don’t mean I feel sad, although I often do. I mean Depression, the kind with a DSM code and psychiatric help indicated. The kind that you can shake lose sometimes, for a time, and can use meds to maintain a manageable life, but doesn’t really truly end. I’m never Cured. Crazy is always there, sweeping through my life.
This site is about the monkey trap, about being stuck, and about the monkey mind, unable to stop.