page_title: Monkey mind
section_title: Japanese "mind-monkey" collocations
hierarchical_section_title: Monkey mind / Early literary history of "mind-monkeys" / Japanese "mind-monkey" collocations
context_page_description: Monkey mind or mind monkey, from Chinese xinyuan and Sino-Japanese shin'en 心猿 [lit. "heart-/mind-monkey"], is a Buddhist term meaning "unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable". In addition to Buddhist writings, including Chan or Zen, Consciousness-only, Pure Land, and Shingon, this "mind-monkey" psychological metaphor was adopted in Taoism, Neo-Confucianism, poetry, drama, and literature. "Monkey-mind" occurs in two reversible four-character idioms with yima or iba 意馬 [lit. "thought-/will-horse"], most frequently used in Chinese xinyuanyima 心猿意馬 and Japanese ibashin'en 意馬心猿. The "Monkey King" Sun Wukong in the Journey to the West personifies the monkey mind. Note that much of the following summarizes Carr.
context_section_description: Japanese Buddhist monks not only imported Sino-Japanese vocabulary such as shin'en < xinyuan 心猿 "mind-monkey" and iba < yima 意馬 "idea-horse", but also invented analogous Japanese words like i'en 意猿 "idea-monkey" and shinba 心馬 "mind-horse". Unless otherwise noted, translations are by Carr (1993:159-161). The earliest known usages of relevant "mind-monkey" terminology are shown in the table below.
  During the Heian period (794-1185 CE), the Chinese "mind-monkey" and "idea-horse" were paraphrased as i'en 意猿 "idea-monkey" and shinba 心馬 "mind-horse". The 797 CE Sangō Shiiki 三教指帰 "Indications of the Three teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism)" was written by Kūkai, who founded esoteric Shingon Buddhism. Two passages introduced Japanese "mind-monkey" and "will-horse" neologisms. One used i'en 意猿 "idea/will monkey" with the common word nouma 野馬 "wild horse": "The four great difficulties overexcite the wild horse's fast gallop, the twenty-six contributory causes mislead the plans of the idea-monkey." Another passage used shinba 心馬 "heart/mind horse" and isha 意車 "idea-chariot": "Whip the mind-horse to gallop off in the eight directions, grease the idea chariot and gambol within the nine heavens."
  During the Kamakura period (1185–1333 CE), Pure Land Buddhism introduced the Sino-Japanese terms shin'en 心猿 "mind-monkey" and iba 意馬 "idea-horse", and an early travelogue popularized them. The Genkyū hōgo 元久法語 "Genkyū era (1204–1206) Buddhist Sermons" is a collection of writings by Hōnen, the founder of the Jōdo Shū. His c. 1205 "Tozanjō 登山状 "Mountain Climbing Description"  (tr. adapted from Carr 1993:159) uses iba with shin'en: "When you wish to enter the gate of determined goodness, then your idea-horse runs wild within the bounds of the six sense objects [rokujin 六塵 <  Ayatana: "form, sound, smell, taste, tangibility, and dharma"]. When you wish to enter the gate of scattered goodness, then your mind-monkey gambols and jumps across the branches of the ten evil deeds [jūaku 十悪: killing, stealing, adultery, lying, cursing, slandering, equivocating, coveting, anger, and false views]." The 1223 Kaidōki 海道記 "Record of Coast Road Travels" was a travelogue of the Tōkaidō (road) from Kyoto to Kamakura. It used shinsen 心船 "heart/mind boat" meaning "imaginary journey" with iba 意馬 "idea/will horse" and wrote arasaru 荒猿 "wild monkey" for arasu 荒す "treat roughly/wildly": "I rowed the mind-boat for make-believe. As yet, I neither poled across myriad leagues of waves on the Coast Road, nor roughly rode the idea-horse to urge it on through clouds of the distant mountain barrier." 
  During the early Edo period (1603–1868), the four-character Chinese collocations yimashinen 意馬心猿 and shinenyima 心猿意馬 were introduced into Japanese. The 1675 Man'an kana hōgo 卍庵仮名法語, which was a vernacular collection of Zen sermons, first used shin'en'iba 意馬心猿. "For this reason, even if you reside somewhere with remote mountain streams and desolate tranquillity, and sit in silent contemplation, you will only be passing idle time because you are isolated from the road of the mind-monkey and idea-horse." The 1699 Kabuki play Wakoku gosuiten 和国五翠殿 "Japan's Five Green Palaces" repeatedly used ibashin'en. For instance, the first act described two prisoners tied to a tree: "They are the idea-horse and mind-monkey themselves. So if this pine tree is the pole of Absolute Reality, then these two prisoners are a greedy monkey – no, a cat – and a horse running wild; and they are just like the idea-horse and mind-monkey."
caption: Monkeys in a plum tree by Mori Sosen (1747–1821)
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