I use this term often… when I’ve had a frustrating meditation session where I haven’t been able to concentrate. In fact it could be said that I use this term almost everyday, yet something must be happening because of two reasons:
1. I used to be a multi-tasker. Now I really struggle to multi-task.
2. I can concentrate and get into the flow of things so much easier. The negative effect is (1). Although that is debatable as to whether that effect is in fact negative.
“The untrained mind can be compared to a monkey swinging from branch to branch, wandering from one subject to another without concentration. When the mind is disturbed by anger, jealousy, hate, impatience, fear, lack of self confidence, or becoming emotional about negative things that happened in the past, the mind is wasting valuable thinking time. These negative thoughts and emotions take up time that instead should be used for constructive thinking. The purpose of training the mind is to maximize its power and concentrate on the decisions that matter.”
