A Tree Filled with Monkeys

"The Indian mystic Sri Ramakrishna, who lived in
Bengal in the nineteenth century, used to describe the
mind as a mighty tree filled with monkeys, all
swinging from branch to branch and all in an
incessant riot of chatter and movement.

Prayer is not a matter of adding to this confusion by
trying to shout it down and covering it with another lot
of chatter. The task of meditation is to bring all this
mobile and distracted mind to stilness, silence and
concentration, to bring it, that is, into its proper
service. This is the aim given us by the psalmist: ´Be
still and know that I am God´ (Ps 46:10)

One of the first great lessons in humility is that we
come to wisdom and stillness and pass beyond
distraction, only through the gift of God. His prayer is
his gift to us and all we have to do is to dispose
ourselves by becoming silent. Silence is the
essential human response to the mystery of God, to
the infinity of God.

It is this understanding that has led so many today to
the threshold of real prayer. The way of prayer is a
way of ever-deeper, ever more generous silence".