Seeing Blindness

I came across a quote on a blog from an essay by David Duncan called "Bird Watching as a Blood Sport". It appeared as an article in Harper's Magazine on July 1997 but I've not been able to access it yet. Here is the quote anyhow:

"While writing the last paragraph, for instance, I swiveled my eyes from the page to grab a blue ceramic coffee cup from a shelf directly behind me. En route to and from this cup, my eyes moved across dozens of plainly lit objects. Yet I perceived none of them. By retracing, slowly, my eyes' route to the cup, I see that they swept across a brass banker's lamp, a Japanese painting of Ebisu playing a red carp on a cane pole, a photo of Meher Baba feeding a monkey, an old L.C. Smith Bros. typewriter, a bunny-ears cactus, an almost life-sized figurative sculpture, two jars full of pens and pencils, fifty or so books, and a large window. Yet I saw none of this. Something in me sought an object it knew to be blue, behind me, and full of hot caffeine--sought it so decisively that I turned 180 degrees, 'filming' all the way, yet made an essentially blind turn. This 'seeing blindness' is the great contradiction of human eyesight."

The reference to Baba is what caught my attention and the fact that he is feeding a monkey is ironic and suggests the so-called "monkey mind" that causes me so much trouble when I try to stay in the present moment. This is probably quite unfair to monkeys who are certainly far less occupied with the past and future than I am. Another walk with the dog tonight but I kept drifting off, not for long periods but very frequently. If I had any insights, it was simply that the mind will seize on the slightest thought in order to escape into the past or future.

I like this graphic of the mischievous monkey who has dominion over its hapless owner. At least now I know that the monkey is there, whereas before I was oblivious to its existence. In the past, I've often glibly used the phrase "monkey mind" without ever really understanding what I was talking about.