Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (168293)	8/8/2011 1:23:40 PM
From: Win Smith	Respond to of 544045

I think I first came across this concept as an aside in an old Robert Stone novel in my college days, as the phrase "the mind is a monkey". Think he picked it up from Ken Kesey, it was in the context of Kesey / Neal Cassady based characters. Adam Smith's "Power of Mind", which I also read in that time frame, I think stated it as "The mind is a drunken monkey". freelyhovering is right about the Chinese heritage, Wikipedia dates the first references there back 406 AD. The currently mindfulness reading is probably closer to roots. I know the local research operation, investigatinghealthyminds.org , has gone a modern/classic fusion route, they kicked off with a visit by both Kabat-Zinn and the Dalai Lama, see news.wisc.edu . I think they did FMRI on the Dalai Lama even. In the local context, with the recent influx of trolls, I think we sort of have a problem with mindless monkeys, but that's another story. I will once again mildly suggest that our gentle readers and contributors not feed the trolls, but I know it's hard to resist sometimes. Trolls in general respond to every post they get, so it's hard to address them without amplifying the noise. As Cogito posted, the ignore function can help.