Blessings will come if you cultivate as much stillness as possible. I'm not just talking about reducing the noise levels, although that's a good first step. Other things you might want to do: Cut way down on your use of the phone; text-message sparingly; surf the Internet 70 percent less than usual; avoid watching TV news altogether; and don't hang around people whose minds zip around like chimps on meth.

As for your own monkey mind: See if you can enjoy some periods each day when the monkey gets to lie down in a soft place and watch the wide sky roll by.

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