THE Kaieteur News article on March 12th (Phagwah Day Murder  Suspect says ‘I lost it’) quoted one Kevin Ally as saying that he just ‘lost it’ on Phagwah Day when he encountered some trivial, unpleasant stimuli at the playful hands of children, is worth examining. What exactly did he lose that caused him to pelt children and ultimately cause the death of a man, a father, a husband, a son? What awful consequences follow from losing this thing that he simply just lost? And how can this state of affairs be avoided?
The KN report went on to quote the suspect as saying, “I was in control and I tell them ‘no, no y’all don’t throw water on me.”
The acts of the children made him “highly annoyed.”
So what this man lost and what he was trying desperately to hold onto, by his own confession, was self-control. He knew he had a problem and was trying to stay above it, he knew the difference between being in control and being out of it, but because of the frailty of his mind, weakened by a physically depleted drug-abused brain, he lost the battle and ultimately, instead of living, he was being lived (Joyce Meyer.)
We can all relate to this internal battle that we encounter daily by virtue of being born – we all experience rage, anger, discomfort, disappointment to varying degrees. Most of us manage to ‘quieten’ our tempers (after all they are merely a temporary wave of energy flowing through our bodies) without murdering anyone; yet too many of us are being sucked into the abyss of the mind by our ignorance.
It is natural to think that the problem is out there – in this case, it was the children playing Phagwah that was threatening or maybe the concept of Phagwah itself was threatening or maybe it was the thought of getting drenched or maybe there was a strong attachment to his intended destination.
Indeed, it is the stimuli that is causing an unpleasant reaction within, but the trained human mind has the capability to choose, to filter, to ignore, to select. I have seen dogs and other animals glare at distractions but choose to thump their tails, sit back and ignore them.
We know how strategically eagles operate. So even animal life is  behaving better than some of us.
The capabilities of the human mind are weakened when the human brain is untrained or physically damaged especially by drug abuse. Our human brain is a most precious thing. It is the most highly evolved and powerful of creation yet we are unaware, largely unconscious of its value.
When this human brain is damaged by whatever means – poisoned by hateful beliefs, physically damaged by accidents or alcohol and drug abuse – the entire society falls because our reality is that we are as strong as our weakest link. A decision by one individual to succumb to drug use affects the entire nation and indeed the world, since our reality is highly interconnected and interdependent.
Everybody matters. And everybody has to rise and evolve for what justice comes out of incarceration?
How is it just to the children who lost a father? To the courageous man who lost his life in defence of others? We can strive to create a just society by preventing atrocities from arising so we don’t need to deal with what terrible things can arise (Buddha – Sabbasava Sutta).
This is a challenging task in a country depleted of its communities by mass migration and senselessly divided by strife and illusions of grandeur and power.
Challenging it may be and it is certainly no silver bullet, but no progress is made without effort; the solution to all of our problems lies with developing and strengthening the internal control mechanisms existing within each one of us.
This very battle that Mr. Kevin Ally said he lost is where we need to focus our attention. It is a universal battle. It’s an internal process driven by internal faculties and we can, I assure us all, improve our faculties of mind. The benefit of strengthening the holistic qualities of mind is increased happiness. That good, healthy wholesome feeling of being in control and knowing that one is doing the right thing.
Most of us are unaware of the dynamic, interactive process that is taking place between us and our environment daily and indeed, moment by moment. This self-knowledge deficit lies at the root of all of our problems and so an understanding of how to come into balance or even surplus is critical to solving our problems. Because we are not conscious (or mindful) of the powerful flow of feelings, emotions, thoughts within ourselves and how these propel us to act in certain ways, we are not aware of them existing and manifesting in others as well. We are therefore using behaviour to inform theories of conduct and policies that are hollow and without psychological cause, truth or depth.
Our superficial theories (religious bigotry) offer us more conflict and are short on comprehension of real causes and effects.
We are not the only people in the world facing difficult situations and making improper assessments of reality. This is the human challenge: to understand and manage the complexity of the world. How accurately do the thoughts, theories and concepts that we create in our minds reflect the reality? Nobel Prize-winning psychologists Kaheman and Tversky speak of a psychological tendency of mind called ‘anchoring’ where we tend to base our decision-making on past analysis rather than on present insight.
Riding the present (known differently as liberation, nirvana, enlightenment, moksha) is a skill that requires tremendous, highly developed intelligence and insight, which is why it is a phenomenon not seen too often in the world. The state of the world reflects the state of the minds of the world. Clean up the minds and we clean up the world.

The ‘Reader Comments’ on the Stabroek News website on this same incident (9th March – Peacemaker slain after Phagwah  row) show horror, sympathy and great concern but little understanding of the universality of the phenomenon. We cannot articulate (beyond hate) on emotions and feelings and sentiment, the basis of human relationships.
When hurt and confused we reach, like ignorant people, for the easiest superficial answer – the victim mentality kicks it – it’s a racial problem, a religious bigotry problem, a government problem, a man vs. woman domestic violence problem. This kind of analysis is not helpful if our goal is to solve a problem. Indeed, these incidents of rage are symptoms of larger societal problems but there is a psychological cause behind the effect. Albert Einstein is quoted as having said that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. If we are to lift ourselves out of the quicksand, we need a new level of understanding, a new language to dialogue with.
And this is where our dialogue must improve through the use of human intelligence tempered by the universal spirit if possible rather than mere reactivity of base emotions. In order to make this transition, we must understand that we have emotions and be able to recognise them as they arise within us and shape and manage them as necessary before they explode. This transition is asking for more involvement of the faculty of intelligence and will require more knowledge. Teenagers in the country are trying desperately to find commonsense ways of dealing with their own hatred and the hatred of others and their tumultuous emotions. The status updates on Facebook are telling. “Run from negative people,” “people are stupid.” These labels are inadequate for dealing with root causes. We have to improve the vocabulary to improve the dialogue and the self- knowledge.
In my first attendance at a Buddhist/Christian meditation sitting on a university campus, the gentle Catholic nun leading the session asked that we all close our eyes and pay attention to our thoughts. This is one method of how one can become more aware of thoughts and self, by a practice called thought-watching. If we do it in the place of worship, in the home, on the cushion or on the couch, we develop mental capacity and prepare ourselves for the road. Without the development of that capacity, we are doomed. After the thought-watching exercise came the million dollar question: what emotions were attached to the thoughts?
Every thought can have an associated emotion. Typically, it can be pleasant or unpleasant and the interaction between feelings and thoughts comprise a feedback cycle. The pleasant feelings can lead to addiction on one extreme and the unpleasant can lead to murderous rage on the other extreme. More specifically, we can feel anger, rage, ‘annoyance’, resentment, jealousy, envy, hatred, egotistical, desire, discomfort, disease, unhappiness, pain, fragmented, hurt, shame, blame; if we don’t label and acknowledge them and stop or deal with them, we do not know they exist. These feelings can then overwhelm us into depression and suicide or propel us into actions that cause harm to self or others. Instead of the aggregate terms – negative or stupid or racial or bigoted or government – we now have more terms to use to describe a situation more accurately.
We also experience the goodness of life – the positive emotions – joy, happiness, love, friendliness, compassion, generosity, bliss, unity, ease, peace, freedom, respect, confidence – and these are the ones that never result in harm to self or others. I recently had the pleasure of listening to a story told by another Catholic nun who lived for years in India. She spoke to a largely Christian British audience of the wonders of the festival of Holi (our Phagwah) and the importance of play and dance in our lives and she related that during this festival, it is the duty of the participants to play and have fun with each other and enjoy the fullness of the experience of being alive. Adults often forget to play, to dance and sing and celebrate life. When we encounter the abyss of life, Phagwah is an expression to remind us how to survive it. Not with violence, knives or drugs, but with playfulness and pure, unadulterated bliss cultivated even in the depths of poverty out of absolutely nothing but the joy of the human heart.

Om sarvesham svastir bhavatu
Sarvesham shantir bhavatu
Sarvesham purnam bhavatu
Sarvesham mangalam bhavatu
Om shantih shantih shantih

May there be good for all
May there be peace for all
May there be fullness for all
May there be auspicious for all
Om peace peace peace.