Squirrels

I read where a person spoke about thoughts this way: "Squirrels running around in my head before I could get a leash on them."  This is a wonderful metaphor for thoughts that come to us when we are trying to have a quiet mind, as in meditation.  You cannot control thoughts any more than you can control squirrels with a leash.  Let squirrels be squirrels and thoughts be thoughts.  In meditation, what we try to do is ignore thoughts, not give them any focus or attention.  We are aware of them, but we don't follow them around and see where they are going to end up.  We let them wander around in the mind.  This is the point of a breathing or mantra technique.  Some people might even use soft music to fill the background of their mind.  Squirrels seem to multiply if left alone.  Thoughts seem to just drift away into the background of life when we ignore them in meditation.