William L. Mikulas: Taming the Drunken Monkey: The Path to Mindfulness, Meditation, and Increased Concentration. Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota, 2014, 267 pp

This is not so much a review of a book as it is a commentary on a wonderful invitation and guide to experience. This mental training manual uses the effective metaphor of the drunken monkey to symbolize the mind, in all its humanized frenzy. For us to survive as human animals, our minds must be able to dart from a potential source of threat to a potential source of nourishment, constantly scanning and swinging from mental tree to tree. Yet, in our domesticated contemporary environment, the monkey becomes restless in its mental cage, stumbling around inside our heads without focus, while impacting our behaviors and actions without our conscious awareness. To exacerbate the drunkenness, modern technological devices such as the smartphone often serve as an open whiskey bottle to our already-intoxicated primate friend. …