Dyed

The word for “Passion” in Pali is ‘Raga’ and this word evolved from a root word which means “to dye”.

The semantics in place here is fascinating for when one is caught in the web of passion; one’s mind is literally DYED by all the colours of the emotions. Nothing escapes, as all facets of our lives become permeated by this pursuit of sensual pleasure.

Similarly it is not easy to be freed of a dye, for once stained, it is a most difficult task for the mind to be liberated, just imagine how difficult it is to wash off the ink on our shirts stained by that leaked from a ball pen.

I am reminded of an incident more than a decade ago. I was in Melbourne with my wife, and we walked into a pub one Friday evening [now before you stone me, please let me remind you that in Aussie culture, just about everybody walks into a pub on Friday evening!!!]. So there was the usual loud music, smoky air and girls were dancing on the table tops and bar counter. And they were stark naked! Yup, naked as newborn babies. We finished our drinks and left but the memory of that evening is still DYED into my mind.

I have since then stopped walking into pubs and am a teetotaler.

The point is the power of such emotions, and the word ‘Raga’ proves the point eminently. It is difficult to calm our minds, even more so to make it sharp and focused like a straight arrow. Hindrances arise out of our own making, we plant the seeds, and we reap the fruit. With all the distractions, advertisements, temptations of modern life, we must make great effort before we can succeed. To walk away from the mindless pursuit of MORE and MORE material things, and sensual pleasures is already to push oneself against the tide of modern society. To have a mind state of CONTENTMENT is almost certain to invite chidings and laughter from colleagues and friends; all on a lemming like march to consumer-dom. And frustration.

Once placed in isolation in the cool of a darkened room, our minds is seen to struggle and scamper about, to the safe resort of past pleasant memories, or to fantasies of even more pleasures in an imagined future. Or it relieves the nightmares of past horrors or whimper in fears of anticipated terrors. It simply refuses to be in the present.

This is mainly due to the conditioning of our minds. Even in our daily working lives, we live either in the past or the future. We are hardly in the moment and even if we are for a brief moment doing so, we quickly drift mindlessly away… again.

Another reason is that our ‘SELF’ is a mental construct, and this delusion can only succeed if we constantly give it an IDENTITY; and this “IDENTITY” is the memories of the past and the anticipation of what will happen to this “SELF”. In the present moment, in just THIS moment, there is just what is happening; breathing, thinking, emotions, etc…. it just is. We are at every moment holding onto anything and everything as “I”, “My” or “Mine”, or rejecting it, or even hating it. At every moment we reinforce this “I”, grabbing onto more and demanding more. As a result we suffer more.

To be able to let go is not easy, for one, our minds are so stained by much greed, our views are distorted and our efforts are geared for single minded pursuits of temporary pleasures. Hence to ‘let go’ goes against every grain of our modern 21^st century fibre. Thus for the one who is determined to walk this path, this person must have seen the Pain, Dissatisfaction and Sufferings of life. It is only with this, that the Herculean effort to re-condition his/her mind can be jumpstarted.

Do you see that First Noble Truth?

Then you may want to start letting go. Remember that DYES stick because of the bond between the DYE and the Fabric; once there is NO BOND, it goes away naturally.

That bond, that superglue, is our GREED.