TABLE of CONTENTS

Introduction 1Reading This Book 4

METAPHORS FOR MIND 51. Storytelling Mind 7

2. The Four-Floor Building 9

3. Commentarial Mind 13

4. Doggy Mind and Monkey Mind 14

5. Lion Mind 16

6. Friendly Neighborhood Spider Mind 18

7. Carving Nature at the Joints 20

8. “You’ve Got Mail!” 22

9. The Inner Mute Button 23

10. Fierce Attention 25

11. Different Kinds of Snow 26

12. Waking Up 27

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13. “Next Stop: 110th Street” 30

14. “Man Goes Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel” 31

15. Automatic Pilot 32

16. “Over 400 Channels—

For Only $89.95 a Month” 34

17. Big Mind 35

18. Form and Emptiness 36

19. The Reality on 7th Avenue 37

METAPHORS FOR SELF 3920. The Me Movie 42

21. A Flashlight in a Dark Room 43

22. Witness 45

23. “Show Me the Self Within the Self” 46

24. Thoughts Like Soap Bubbles 47

25. “Simmer Down” 49

26. Beasts of Burden 51

27. Leader of the Pack 52

28. The Finger Pointing to the Moon

Is Not the Moon Itself 53

29. The Same River 55

30. Still Forest Pool 56

31. “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” 57

32. Guardianship of Solitude 58

33. No Taxation Without Representation 60

34. Quorum 61

35. “Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First” 62

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METAPHORS FOR EMOTION, CHANGE, AND“ORDINARY CRAZINESS” 6536. The Uncertain Fire 66

37. The Man Trap 68

38. Emotional Baggage 70

39. “Perfectomy” 71

40. Deprivation Mind 72

41. “I’ve Got Good News and I’ve Got Bad News” 74

42. The Drama Sutra 76

43. “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” 77

44. “Ninety Miles an Hour Is the Speed I Drive” 78

45. “Man Loses Arm in Tragic Industrial Accident” 80

46. Don’t Give the Bully Your Lunch Money 81

47. Spaz 83

48. Thirty-one Emotional Flavors 85

49. “Burn, Baby, Burn” 86

50. Cleopatra Syndrome 88

51. “Please Pass the Tums” 89

52. “Shoot First, Ask Questions Later” 92

53. Quack, Quack, Quack 95

54. The Hornet’s Nest 96

55. The Investing Dentist 97

56. AAA For the Mind 99

57. “Might as Well Face It,

You’re Addicted to Thoughts” 100

58. “No One Told Me the War Was Over” 101

59. Babysitting 103

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60. “Move It or Lose It!” 104

61. Two Arrows 105

62. “As Exciting as Watching Grass Grow” 106

63. The Pause Button 108

64. Don’t Fall Asleep at the Wheel 109

METAPHORS FOR ACCEPTANCE,RESISTANCE, AND SPACE 11165. Wild Chickens 113

66. The Buzzing Fly 114

67. Weeds 115

68. “If You Don’t Like the Weather…” 116

69. “This Piece of Paper Is My Universe” 118

70. “I Am Ready to Accept Your Terms

of Surrender” 119

71. “Revolting!… Give Me Some More.” 120

72. To Give Your Sheep or Cow a Large Meadow

Is the Way to Control Him 122

73. Lean into the Sharp Points 123

74. The Sole of the Earth 124

75. The Swept Floor Never Stays Clean 124

76. Petty Tyrants 126

77. Falling Down 127

78. Be the Mapmaker 129

79. Letting Go and Letting Be 130

80. “Tea. Earl Gray. Hot.” 131

81. “Bring Me a Mustard Seed” 133

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82. Pain and Suffering 134

83. “Why Didn’t I Kneel More Deeply

to Accept You?” 136

84. A Foot in the Door 137

85. Office Hours 139

86. Monkey Trap 140

87. Mental Aikido 141

88. In a Hole with a Shovel 142

89. The Cluttered Garage 143

90. “The Best Seats Are in the Balcony” 144

91. Sky Mind 145

92. “Don’t Waltz in the Minefield” 146

METAPHORS FOR PRACTICE 14993. “Please Take Your Seat” 150

94. The Stillness Between Two Waves of the Sea 151

95. Holding a Baby Bird 152

96. Sharpening the Axe 153

97. The Sitar of Enlightenment 154

98. Learning to Play a Musical Instrument 155

99. “Just Do It!” 156

100. Divide and Conquer 157

101. Be Prepared 159

102. “Come Back Soon!” 160

103. “Sit… Sit… Sit… Good Puppy!” 162

104. Hold On for Dear Life 163

105. March of the Penguins 165

106. The Clothes Don’t Make the Man 166

107. Squeeze the Sponge 167

108. “You Only Have Moments to Live” 169

AFTERWORD 171

APPENDICES: INSTRUCTIONS AND EXERCISESFOR MINDFULNESS MEDITATION 173Appendix 1: Mindful Breathing 174

Appendix 2: Body-Scan Meditation 179

Appendix 3: Walking Meditation 185

Appendix 4: Relationship Practice 188

Appendix 5: Informal Practice 190

Acknowledgments 195Notes 197Works Cited 213About the Author 221

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INTRODUCTION

In 1988, my doctoral advisor in clinical psychologyintroduced me to a slim volume Metaphors WeLive By, by the linguist George Lakoff and the

philosopher Mark Johnson. This incisive work shapedthe course of my graduate education and changed theway I think about and practice psychotherapy.

Metaphors help us to understand the world: theyare the workhorse of language and meaning, lettingus understand one thing in terms of another andhelping us to communicate our understanding to oth-ers. We understand the world by metaphor and bydoing so create a sense of the familiar. Yet metaphorsare far more than colorful devices of language. Infact, they cannot be separated from the way we seeand even experience the world. What’s more, muchof our everyday language is based metaphorically onour physical bodies—our embodiment—and many

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metaphors reflect, after a fashion, the way the humanbrain is organized. In this way, concepts are not arbi-trary references but reflect how we are built, the verystructure of our being.

The psychologist Julian Jaynes argued thatmetaphor is the very ground of language. Take forexample the verb to be. This basic verb is used in sen-tences such as “I am” and “she is.” It is derived fromthe Sanskrit bhu, which means “to grow” or “tomake grow.” Thus, to be has the same etymologicalroot as another Sanskrit verb asmi, which means “tobreathe.” And here, encapsulated in the language ofan ancient metaphor, we see that living and breathingare one. And, in poignant connection to themes in therest of this book, we can also reflect on the fact thatthe process of breathing is the foundation of mindful-ness meditation, and by extension mindfulness is itselfa practice of being.

This book presents 108 metaphors for mindful-ness, meditation practice, self, change, deep accept-ance, and other related concepts. I have compiled themetaphors presented here over twenty-five years ofmeditating, practicing yoga, studying Buddhism, andbeing a mental health professional.

Mindfulness is a process of self-inquiry directed atwhat is happening in the moment, often focused onhow the body feels, on how we embody this moment.Mindfulness is an intentional directing of attention toexperience as it unfolds in the present moment, one

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moment following the next—the very happening ofexperience as it is happening without inner commen-tary, judgment, or storytelling.

And metaphors are indispensable to understandmindfulness, and to help make it a part of everydaylife. Metaphors for mindfulness can motivate us topractice, show us how to bring mindfulness into dailylife, and help us to employ mindfulness to transformour life.

I often find myself thinking and speaking inmetaphor, and many of these metaphors were cre-ated in the midst of my clinical work. Imagery inmetaphors anchors understanding, and is often aguide to the change necessary for self-improvement.These metaphors give the people I treat and teach abridge from the conceptual to the experiential.

Many of the metaphors in this book are originalto me; others are selected from the literature onmindfulness and Buddhism. The metaphors on thefollowing pages form the practical core of my mind-fulness teaching. Each metaphor is a node in a net-work of interweaving concepts that attempt toenliven the experience of mindfulness. And what’smore, you’ll also find that even the process of“unfolding” and elaborating one metaphor requiresthe use of several more!

8. “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!”

I’m willing to venture that you don’t look throughevery spam email or scour over every piece of junksnail mail you receive. If you did, you’d likely neverget anything else done, as you’d be spending yourentire day being fascinated by offers for Cialis,unclaimed sweepstakes, and the latest stock tip tomake you rich. Instead of reading through each emailwith fascination, you quickly recognize it as spam orjunk and delete or ignore it. Better yet, you have aprogram that does it for you.

Mindfulness is to the mind what a spam blocker isto your inbox. By practicing mindfulness, you becomefamiliar and intimate with the functioning of yourmind. By doing so, you can quickly recognize “junkthoughts” when they occur, disentangle yourself fromthem, and minimize the clutter. By getting into thehabit of not becoming engrossed in every thought thatthe mind encounters, the burdensome thoughts them-selves may become less frequent visitors, as if youwere “unsubscribing” from various junk mail distri-bution lists.

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20. THE ME MOVIE

Did you ever notice that the mind makes life into amovie?

As Larry Rosenberg pointed out in a meditationretreat I was attending, this is the Movie About Me:starring me, directed by me, produced by me, featur-ing soundtrack by me, casting by me, screenplay byme—and critiqued and reviewed by me! The mind isthe original amateur auteur.

What’s more, there is usually plenty of drama (andmelodrama) in this feature film and, as the titlereflects, a great degree of self-preoccupation. Whenwe live the movie in the first person, we are lost in themind and not being mindful. When we are able to rec-ognize and watch the movie from some distance away,then we bring mindfulness to life.

The film itself and the wonderful and alluring illu-sion it creates is also a metaphor for the self. Whenyou watch a movie, you see fluid uninterruptedmotion—but it is, of course, just rapid succession ofstill images. The continuity and fluidity is an illusioncourtesy of the nervous system and its sensory appa-ratus. Likewise, you experience a solid continuousself—this continuity and solidity is an illusion. Con-sciousness somehow “fills in the gaps” and asserts acontinuity of self that neuroscientists—and Buddhistsfor millennia—say is not there.

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Mindfulness practice can help you to identify theelements of this movie and offers the opportunity notto take the self so seriously. Practice helps you tolocate gaps in the continuity and to appreciate thatthis fluidity is an illusion (often a very pleasant one,but still an illusion). You can see in between the indi-vidual frames of the film, as it were, and get closer tothe dynamic, ever-changing reality of your true being,your true self.

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43. “DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHINGYOU THINK”

We’ve all been admonished not to believe everythingwe read—after all, the press is fallible and marketersare always selling you something. The best approachto the written word is to develop a healthy skepticism.But what about the cogitated word?

I’ve seen a bumper sticker that neatly sums it upfor us: “Don’t Believe Everything You Think.”

If we validate thoughts as truths simply becausethey originate within our own skull we’re going to bein all sorts of trouble. What might it mean to recog-nize thoughts as just thoughts and develop a healthyskepticism toward them, without mistaking ourthoughts for Ultimate Truths? Is there a way to do thiswithout becoming cynical or debilitated?

We can start with the mental objects that have anegative flavoring, the ones that are critical in nature.When they arise, first ask, “Is there any important feed-back for me here; is there something for me to learn?”If so, identify that important feedback, say “Thankyou” to the critical thought, and move on, integratingthat feedback to the extent that it is useful and possible.Often, however, there is no useful feedback or correc-tive action to take, such as when you are dealing witha generalized criticism like, “I am no good.”

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Mindfulness practice will help you to become“suspicious” of these thoughts and less sucked intotheir negativistic stories. It takes some practice andtime to develop the sensitivity to recognize the feelingflavor of what I call the strident self—the inner voicescreaming thoughts and hawking them as the finalwords on all matters.

With mindfulness practice, you can bring a degreeof distance and incredulity to such interior utterances.You can smile and ask patiently, “Says who?”

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53. QUACK, QUACK, QUACK

Remember the animated versions of Charles Schulz’sPeanuts cartoons? The voices of adults were alwaysrepresented by a muted and somewhat off-key slidetrombone. And this always sounded to me like a kindof squawking, or maybe the honking chatter of quack-ing ducks (“Quackquack quaquackquack quack”).

It can often be valuable to practice “hearing” ver-bal productions as just this kind of squawking orquacking—especially the ones inside our own head.How rarely is there any really useful informationthere, and how often is it just that much noise! In fact,I’m willing to venture that verbal productions of onekind or another trigger much of your distress. I’m sureyou’ve had the experience of being on the telephonewith someone who was going on and on and in frus-tration you’ve held the phone away from your ear asthe person blathers on, attending to something moreuseful or interesting. If you can learn to do this withyour own thoughts—the ruminative, nonproductive,strident thoughts—it can be of great benefit. It can bereally helpful to imagine replacing the endless elabo-rate scripts, stories, and implications of the communi-cation with a simple quacking, “Oh there goes mymind again: Quackquack quaquackquack quack.” Ifyou can do this, even a little, you will reduce or elim-inate a lot of suffering.

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Mindfulness practice can help you to see the mindin this perspective, to see the mind’s productions asnot always being all equally worthy of attention. Ofcourse, you must still distinguish thoughts that needyour attention from those that are junk and it is oftenthe case that other people occasionally do haveimportant information or feedback for us—but byand large, you don’t need to get caught up in the sto-ries and implications.

Enjoy the quacking!

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65. WILD CHICKENS

Meditation teacher Larry Rosenberg tells a story ofhow after many years of studying as a Zen monk inKorea and Japan, he went to Thailand to study in theThai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. Hebrought with him on this journey a set of expectationsand images of what the experience would be like.When he arrived, he was assigned to a small hut in

the forest, with meals brought by an attendant at regu-lar intervals. It was the ideal situation for furthering hismeditation studies—except that the forest was alsocrawling with wild chickens whose primary occupationwas running around squawking all day. Distressed anddismayed, he was confronted with his own mind andstories: “How can I meditate with all this noise?” hewondered, “This is ruining my experience!”As it turns out, one of my neighbors is raising

guinea hens. While not “wild chickens,” they wanderfreely and make quite a racket, raising a cacophonousbellicose screech every time my hundred-poundRhodesian ridgeback and I run by. I’m delighted: Myvery own wild chickens!We always have a choice. If the reality of the situ-

ation contains wild noisy chickens, it can be resistedor accepted. We can be distressed and agitated or atpeace.

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Chances are that whenever you meditate, you’llhave plenty of wild chickens to deal with. Theseinclude impatience, restlessness, boredom, and frus-tration. If you can set aside your ideas about howmeditation (or your life as a whole!) should be, youwill be moving closer to acceptance.And who knows, maybe you’ll come to equani-

mously appreciate the company of all those chickens!

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103. “SIT… SIT… SIT…GOOD PUPPY!”

Imagine a puppy, just eight or ten weeks old, that youare trying to train to sit. You tell it, “Sit.” Perhaps itsits for a moment, and then it is off to play, to pee onthe rug, shred newspaper, and generally to do whatpuppies do. You bring it back and try again, “Sit.”Chances are you do this with a smile and a great dealof patience. Likely, most people would find it easier tobe patient with the dog than with themselves in a newor difficult situation. I bet you rarely treat yourself aswell as you would treat an animal! Or, to put it theother way, you would never treat a dog the way youtreat yourself.

Why is this? How often do we treat ourselves withsome degree of harshness? We beat ourselves up forthe smallest things—the wrong word uttered, someminor imperfection? What if we could be gentle, lov-ing, and forgiving with ourselves, as we would bewith an adorable puppy?

Mindfulness practice helps you to develop thiscapacity. The instructions are clear on this issue.When attention wanders like the puppy, bring it backwith gentleness. Don’t scold yourself for the mindhaving wandered. It’s just what minds do. Start againwith the next breath. Repeat with a smile.

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“Compelling, entertaining, and useful—I couldn’t put it down!”Dr. Steve Taubman, author ofUnhypnosis

108 METAPHORS FOR

MINDFULNESSARNIE KOZAK, Ph.D.

Wild

Chicken

san

dPetty

Tyrants

KOZAK

wisdom

“This book will raise your spiritual IQ.”Shinzen Young, author of The Science of Enlightenment

“A must-readif you desire to live a life of balance and happiness.

Brilliant, simple, and profound.Perfect for your daily inspirational time.”

Dr. Kathleen Hall, founder of The Stress Institute andThe Mindful Living Network

“Full of practical examples and resonant stories.”Lea Belair, author of Walk on Water: How to Make Change Easier

“Insightful, creative, and inspiring.”Frank Jude Boccio, author of Mindfulness Yoga

“Highly recommendedfor both students and teachers of mindfulness.”

Zindel Segal, Ph.D., coauthor of The Mindful Way Through Depression

“Vivid and thoughtful.This book is a welcome companion to mindfulness-based psychotherapy.”

Paul Foxman, Ph.D., author of Dancing with Fear

“Straightforward and delightfullessons in the theory and practice of mindfulness.”

Melissa Myozen Blacker,director of Oasis Professional Training, UMass Center for Mindfulness

SELF-HELP / PSYCHOLOGY

“Arnie Kozak offers us 108 vibrant portals to understanding and cultivatingmindfulness and acceptance. In an immediate and accessible way, the metaphors in

Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants do a wonderful job of capturing the flavor, complexity, andrichness of mindfulness and are particularly good at illustrating the process of employing it.Highly recommend for anyone practicing mindfulness—as well as for therapists, teachers, and

parents who are introducing others to this healing, expansive practice.”Lizabeth Roemer, Ph.D., coauthor of

Mindfulness- & Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapies in Practice

Wisdom Publications • Bostonwisdompubs.org

ISBN 10: 0-86171-576-4 US $14.95ISBN 13: 978-0-8617-1576-3

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