(The Buddhists) "compiled meticulous lists: The Three Characteristics of All Phenomena, the Four Noble Truths, The Four Highest Emotions, The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, etc. They also came up with names for so many of the mental habits I'd come to notice in myself, such as "comparing mind," and "wanting mind." They had a term, too, for that thing I did where something would bother me and I would immediately project forward to an unpleasant future... the Buddhists called this prapanca (pra-PUN-cha), which roughly translates to "proliferation," or "the imperialistic tendency of mind." That captures it beautifully, I thought: something happens, I worry, and that concern instantaneously colonizes my future. My favorite Buddhist catchphrase, however, was the one they used to describe the churning of the ego: "monkey mind"."
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