Rating *****

200 pages
published by Samuel Weiser
ISBN 0877287937

«Those who catch monkeys prepare a pot with a small opening in it and fill it with some sweets. The monkey who desires the food will put its hand inside the pot and take a big handful of the food. Thus, the monkey becomes unable to draw its hand out through the opening. Only on releasing its grip will the monkey be able to take its hand out. It is its desire for the food that has bound its hand. Because it took with its hand some food to fulfil its desire, it was bound there.
This wide world is like the pot, the situations in life or in families are like the narrow top. Our desires are the sweets in the pot. The world being the pot containing the desires as sweets, man puts his hand in the pot. When he sheds his desires, he will be able to live in the world freely. To get freedom the first thing to do is to sacrifice. In philosophical terms this is called renunciation. We think that the world is binding us, but the world is lifeless. It is the desire that binds us.»

- Sathya Sai Baba

This little example gives a comprehensive meaning to the term "monkey mind," and brings it right down to the essential cause, which is desire. In Taming Our Monkey Mind, Phyllis Krystal explains how we often allow ourselves to get trapped by our desires. Impulsive, curious, impatient, and driven by its senses, the monkey serves to illustrate how the undisciplined mind's attachments can become a prison. By taming our monkey mind - overcoming our greed and desire - we find the way to free ourselves from the material world so we can enter the world of the Divine. Phyllis Krystal shares Sai Baba's insights along with her own growth techniques in this practical book.

Synopsis: The Monkey Mind; The Organ-Grinder's Monkey; Hanuman; The Senses; Sai Baba's Ceiling on Desires Program; The Black and White Birds; Selfless Service - An Antidote for the Monkey Mind; Waste of Money, Food, Time, Energy; The Monkey Mind - Thinking, Feeling, Speaking, and Acting; The Monkey Mind blames the Pot; The Monkey Mind and the Ashram Virus; Practical Spirituality; Putting Spirituality into Daily Practice; Practical Spirituality in the Home; You cannot always speak and act oblingingly; Be Here Now; Getting Control of the Monkey Mind; The Spiritual Striptease; Practice what you Preach; Direct Guidance; Love My Uncertainty (Sai Baba); Why Fear when I am Here? (Sai Baba); Let Go and Let God; Be Happy; Monkey or Human? Keep it Simple; My Life is My Message; No hidden Agenda; Your are all Walking Temples; Find Me in Your Heart; From Generation to Generation; When the Pupil is Ready; A Rose by Any Other Name; Go and Do! Glossary; Poems.

Phyllis Krystal was born in England but lives and works as a psychotherapist in California where she has developed her own techniques of psychotherapy. For over thirty years, she has been developing a counseling method using symbols and visualization techniques that help people detach from external authority figures and patterns in order to rely on their own Higher Consciousness as guide and teacher.

Last Updated Thursday, January 7, 1999