The wandering monkey!

When my neurologist had to pump in more air than normal into the black band around my bicep, I knew it was going to be abnormal. As he started releasing the air pressure listening intently to the sound from my elbow through his stethoscope and his eyes riveted on the sphygmomanometer, his eyes widened at the reading. 200/120! He shook his head and repeated the exercise but the manometer refused to budge from the stand it had taken. 200/120! The Doctor gave me a nasty look and remarked that there was no wonder that I had a cerebral haemorrhage with that kind of pressure. He added that I was lucky to have had a non-eventful haemorrhage that did not cripple me but warned me that I could be going in for another episode if I did not bring my BP under control immediately. He referred me to a cardiologist to prescribe the right medicines for my BP management.

My cardiologist is a very friendly and pleasant chap who would not scare you with such body language as pursing his lips and moving his head from right to left when he examines you. On the contrary, he would bring cheer to you by saying things like 200/120 is nothing and he has effectively treated people whose pressure used to be 400/240! When I presented myself before him, he was not unduly alarmed at my reading of 200/120 unlike my neurologist but made some appropriately reassuring statements about it. He promised that he would bring it down to normal within a month if I took the prescribed medicines regularly without fail. He agreed that the medicines he was prescribing were strong and the dosage a bit heavy but assured me that he would reduce it if I supplemented my medicines with yoga and meditation.

Remembering how, years back, I tried an intricate yogic pose and needed external help to restore myself to my original shape, I ruled it out firmly and decided to try meditation. I have heard some very good things being said about meditation and when my Doctor mentioned it, it was like vox dei! I have also heard that mind is a monkey and the more you tried to restrict its movement, the more jumping around it would do. I was advised by an experienced teacher to let the monkey wander freely and soon it would get tired and settle down. Solicited and unsolicited advices poured in from all directions about effective meditation and I was aghast at finding that almost every one with the exception of myself practiced meditation. I was overcome with self pity when someone exclaimed that it was incredible that a person had never tried meditation till he was 64!

I decided to set right this only aberration in my otherwise impeccable life. I selected an auspicious day and sat down for meditation in a clean and comparatively noise-free room. I closed my eyes and prayed to Lord Dakshinamoorthy to lead my meditation fruitfully. A few seconds after I closed my eyes, a big monkey with a broad gummy smile appeared in my mental screen which I instantly recognized as the alter ego of my mind. It sat down and closed its eyes as if mocking my attempt to meditate. I gave it a stern look through my closed eyes and continued with my meditation. All was bliss for a few seconds until the tree jumping started.

I was on my way to the market in the morning contemplating on what to buy. Drumsticks for sambar and baby potato for curry? But then I might have to peel off the boiled potatoes which job never appealed to me. As I continued my walk, I weighed various options in my mind when my reverie was disturbed by a screeching of brakes and an auto rickshaw halting ominously close to me. The driver launched a harangue against me in the choicest Chennai lingo concluding it with ‘Yov perisu! Veetla sollikkinu vandhiya? Savu grakki!’ (Hey Old man! Have you bidden farewell to the folks at home?) A bunch of software girls walking that way giggled heartily at this making me feel hurt and furious, hurt at being addressed as ‘perisu’ and furious that I did not have a suitable reply. I could feel my closed eyes becoming red with anger at the recollection of an incident that took place a couple of days back!

Remembering the advice not to restrict the movements of the monkey but let it wander freely, I complied with it. The wandering monkey took me next to the club to witness an incident that took place a couple of months back. It all started as some innocuous argument over nothing which soon escalated into a wordy duel in which every one had something to contribute including the undersigned. It would have passed off as a routine event but for the fact that the youngest member waved my statement off as inconsequential! Though smitten badly by this gesture on that day, I maintained a stoic silence but in my meditation today, the unfairness of it made me angrier and my eyes redder!

Between the close of one episode and the starting of another, the monkey would flash its broad gummy smile and that made me angrier than the episodes themselves. This continued for the entire duration of the prescribed 20 minutes and when I opened my eyes finally, I scared every one with my bloodshot eyes and grinding of my teeth! No one had any clue for this sudden transformation in me and my daughter suggested going to the Doctor immediately. I just waved her off and settled down to watch my favourite TV programmein in total peace and tranquility!

I knew instantly that I was better off without meditation. I realised that the capability of effective meditation was not given to all but only to a privileged few and it was with a heavy heart that I decided to give up my meditation and stick to my medication!

Hi Cheeniya,

That was a wonderful piece on the jumping monkey. How well have you portrayed the wandering mind and the journey it traverses in solitude. I have gone through the process of meditation for some months, initially I jumped with the monkey who grinned at me many times at all my success and failures. After few days, it stopped appearing. I was successfully meditating, If I can term it that way, one fine day, I sat late in office and it continued for more than three months. I lived in a world of guilt for not meditating. Eventually gave up due to time constraint.

Enjoyed reading every line of your post. You always have way with words...

Dear Sri,
So, you had to meditate, to realise,
manam oru kurangu - manitha
manam oru kurangu
Well, meditation or no meditation, this stance of the mind continues. So, please continue the meditation, oops sorry, medication, without a break !

I recollect my experience, 4 yrs back. I went to my physician to have my routine check up. He took my BP & asked me, if I could guess what my BP was. I proudly declared that all through my life, I was able to maintain a perfect 120/80. He put on a stern look and mentioned " No more boasting, Ms C. Right now it is 220/110. Yes, believe me it had shot up to an alarming level, for reasons best known only to my circulatory system! . He wanted me to get admitted in the hospital straight away, but I managed to convince him that I would rest completely at home with medication ( note, not meditation).
When I returned home, Vish went on saying that I should have got admitted straight away - well, what other opportunity for him to get a "holiday" from me ! Knowing that, I decided to deny him of that privilege, is a different story, altogether !
For the same BP level, you got a cerebral haemorrhage - that only shows, how tolerant a woman gets over the years that the same high BP leaves her, undisturbed. May be, meditation gets "ingrained" in a woman's system, over the experiences in life !
Well, Sri, do you have to repeat in every post your age? That seems to have become your "trademark". Well, not that it bothers me, since I am "------" to you !
Love,
Chithra.

Hi sri,

Please do control your BP. It is on the higher side though your cadiologist says it is nothing...(mine also says the same)

regarding the wandering/meandering monkey...Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. Watching your breath is meditation; listening to the music is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation (aka watching your alter monkey jumping is also meditation loosely.). the moment of self realisations and inner piece will liberate the wanderlust.

i can just isolate myself from the happenings around me in minutes,a habit cultivated by me to relax. (but one school of meditation says that you have to cultivate awareness within the chaos around.)

My tenant is 29. she calls me aunty...even today morning she was wishing me happy diwali aunty..so don't take it to heart...

Hope to see more on the topic...the much talked meditation...

Originally Posted by malspie

Hi Cheeniya,

That was a wonderful piece on the jumping monkey. How well have you portrayed the wandering mind and the journey it traverses in solitude. I have gone through the process of meditation for some months, initially I jumped with the monkey who grinned at me many times at all my success and failures. After few days, it stopped appearing. I was successfully meditating, If I can term it that way, one fine day, I sat late in office and it continued for more than three months. I lived in a world of guilt for not meditating. Eventually gave up due to time constraint.

Enjoyed reading every line of your post. You always have way with words...

Dear Mals
Thank you for your FB. Meditation is the most talked about subject today and as more and more celebrities have started talking about it, the subject has become very famous! Meditation has become very hitech too. But I really do not know how many are really successful in this. I have come to the conclusion that it is not meant for hyperactive minds like mine! In fact , my monkey is more powerful than Hanuman! He jumped over to only Srilanka but mine can jump across the Seven Seas!
I am glad that I have a kindred soul in you!
Sri

Originally Posted by Chitvish

Dear Sri,
So, you had to meditate, to realise,
manam oru kurangu - manitha
manam oru kurangu
Well, meditation or no meditation, this stance of the mind continues. So, please continue the meditation, oops sorry, medication, without a break !

I recollect my experience, 4 yrs back. I went to my physician to have my routine check up. He took my BP & asked me, if I could guess what my BP was. I proudly declared that all through my life, I was able to maintain a perfect 120/80. He put on a stern look and mentioned " No more boasting, Ms C. Right now it is 220/110. Yes, believe me it had shot up to an alarming level, for reasons best known only to my circulatory system! . He wanted me to get admitted in the hospital straight away, but I managed to convince him that I would rest completely at home with medication ( note, not meditation).
When I returned home, Vish went on saying that I should have got admitted straight away - well, what other opportunity for him to get a "holiday" from me ! Knowing that, I decided to deny him of that privilege, is a different story, altogether !
For the same BP level, you got a cerebral haemorrhage - that only shows, how tolerant a woman gets over the years that the same high BP leaves her, undisturbed. May be, meditation gets "ingrained" in a woman's system, over the experiences in life !
Well, Sri, do you have to repeat in every post your age? That seems to have become your "trademark". Well, not that it bothers me, since I am "------" to you !
Love,
Chithra.

Dear Chithra
I have a cousin who will never let us have the final say. If we tell him that we have BP in excess of 200/120 and consequently suffered a haemorrhage, he would say he had 300/180 but nothing happened to him and that he climbed the Tirumalai by foot with that BP! He is a man and his tolereance level is higher than yours!
But how could you say this of my good friend Vish that he wanted you to get admitted in a hospital so that he could have his well earned holiday?! Knowing Vish as I do, if he really wanted a holiday he would have got himself admitted instead for a general check up or something!
Talking of meditation getting ingrained in a woman's system, I remember my maternal grandmother who had this habit of chanting Rama Namam with a rosary of glass beads with her eyes closed. At regular interval, she would beckon someone or the other to see if the curry was overcooked or the milk overboiled. If someone knocked at the door, she would be the first to hear it! Now from what you say, I realise that she was able to go through with her japam since meditation was ingrained in her system and all these interruptions never affected her!
Sri

Originally Posted by shanvy

Hi sri,

Please do control your BP. It is on the higher side though your cadiologist says it is nothing...(mine also says the same)

regarding the wandering/meandering monkey...Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. Watching your breath is meditation; listening to the music is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation (aka watching your alter monkey jumping is also meditation loosely.). the moment of self realisations and inner piece will liberate the wanderlust.

i can just isolate myself from the happenings around me in minutes,a habit cultivated by me to relax. (but one school of meditation says that you have to cultivate awareness within the chaos around.)

My tenant is 29. she calls me aunty...even today morning she was wishing me happy diwali aunty..so don't take it to heart...

Hope to see more on the topic...the much talked meditation...

Dear Shanthi
That was a wonderful FB but your take on meditation is something I can not share with enthu! Human beings are of two kinds, one that can effectively meditate and the other who can not! I belong to the second category which I am told is the majority.
Being called aunty is ok but 'perisu' is something entirely different!
And to add insult to injury, the word perisu is used in films as derogatory! If they want to address an elderly person with respect, they dont say Perisu but 'Periyavar'!
Sri

Hello Cheeniya sir,

What a hilarious post! Enjoyed no end!

I have not tried meditation so I cannot say anything about it. But if I do want to concentrate on something like reading PGW I can do it for hours at a stretch with any amount of hullaballa going around.

I feel that the monkey jumps around because you liked it so and did not want it to sit in one place. Then it can't be a monkey , can it?

Beware of meditation and be careful about medication.

Regards,

Abha.

Dear Cheeniya sir,

A thoroughly enjoyable piece! I loved visualizing the grinning monkey. If you had continued meditating, maybe like Alice's Cheshire cat, the monkey would have dissolved and only the grin would have stayed.

You should get back at the mokey by getting a vice-like grip on your mind, something a la markada mushti. They say that a monkey has enormous strength in its hand and never releases its hold. And so our minds continue to be in the markada mushti of distractions.

In my vacation back home, I learnt yoga. Even then, concentrating for ten minutes during Anuloma Viloma was insidious. My Yogacharya informed me that meditation cannot be taught. And that it required 30 years of continuous instruction to be able to control the mind for 30 seconds. So, now I have a good reason not to learn meditation.

But not all meditation is good, o! There is a fashionable tantric meditation taught in swanky sea side resorts that improves you-know-what ( usual disclaimer on Forum Etiquette, M throwing me out, your imagination running wild apply). Geez, that meditation would have some takers. But I understand that getting wanton and mundane thoughts are okay in the initial stages of meditation. Like an onion shedding unwanted peels, the mind would peel itself to its fragrant core thru meditation.

For me, real meditation is out! I do mine cooking, reading, watering plants,listening to T.M. Krishna, ironing Ramji's shirt. I reckon the kind of meditation we do tells us what we are. I guess I am a small town girl, happiest being a housewife.

Thanks for a wonderful piece. I was down after an all night party of fireworks, food & more food, cards. Now I am well realxed and tranquil after reading your piece. Isnt that what meditation does to you? So count in 'reading Cheeniya's posts' as another form of meditation for me!

regards
Vidya

Dear Cheeniya Sir
You have in your inimitable style set our minds wandering in hilarious motionswith the antics of the monkey, the grin, your mind, your meditation, and ofcourse the inevitable medication. I too might be 64 in no time at all and would not have mastered this greatness but so be it. More than the meditation your humor and easy goingness is going to help you in leaps and bounds and in no time at all pressure reading would be perfectly normal. oops I made a mistake. Everything will become normal provided
you do not read "you know who's" post. First she seems adamant in proving she had higher pressure (surely the kuzha kuzha curry had something to do with this) and then she denies Vish the small holiday wish. For allwe know dear Mr.Vish would have suggested it purely from concern over her but noooooo. And above all "May be, meditation gets "ingrained" in a woman's system, over the experiences in life ! " and why should she complain about the age mention. You are proud of your age because you are so wise and cheerful and well educated and well mannered so I dont get it. Did you read the mention in the last thread about the fan club?? I'd better scoot or I might be in bigger trouble than all the vedis and atom bombs..oops i did it again!!