Dama

Dama derives from the Sanskrit root "dam," meaning "to tame" or "to control." In Vedic and Upanishadic literature, it appears as a crucial component of self-mastery. This concept is central to yogic philosophy, appearing prominently in texts like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as one of the niyamas (observances).

Restraint of the senses. Dambulla (S/,-.). The name of a hujre rock in Ceylon. It is about 400 feet above the level of the sea. Its upper portion is excavated, and .several lar«re cave-temples, or Viharas, are cut out of the solid rock, all of these beinp: of pre-Christian date. They are consid(>red as the bestpreserved antiquities in the island. The North side of the rock is vertical and quite inaccessible, but on the South side, about 150 feet from its summit, its hufje overhanging granite mass has been fashioned into a platform with a row of large cave-temples excavated in the surrounding walKs — evidently at an enormous sacrifice of labor and money. Two Viharas may be mentioned out of the many: the Maha Raja Vikara, 172 ft. in length and 75 in breadth, in which there are upwards of fifty figures of Buddha, most of them larger than life and all formed from the solid rock. A well has been dug out at the foot of the central Dagoba, and from a fi.ssure in the rock there constantly drips into it beautiful clear water which is kept for sacred purposes. In the other, the Maha Dfwvjo Vihara, there is to be seen a gigantic figure of the dead Gautama Buddha, 47 feet long, reclining on a couch and pillow cut out of solid rock like the rest. "This long, narrow and dark temple, the position and placid aspect of Buddha, together with the stillness of the place, tend to impress the beholder with the idea that he is in the chamber of death. The priest asserts . . . that such was Buddha, and such were those (at his feet stands an attendant) who witnessed the last moments of his mortality" (Hardy's East. Monachism). The view from Dambulla is magnificent. On the large rock platform which seems to be now more visited by very intelligent tame white monkeys than by monks, there stands a huge Bo-Tree. one of the numerous scions from the original Bo-Tree under wliich the Lord Siddhartha reached Nirvana. GLOSSART 39 "About 50 ft. from the summit there is a pond which, as the priests ass

The term Dama, meaning the restraint of the senses, speaks to a timeless human aspiration: to gain sovereignty over the ceaseless tide of external impressions that buffet the mind. In the bustling agora of modern consciousness, where stimuli are amplified and desires are perpetually stoked by an insatiable digital current, the ancient wisdom of Dama offers a potent antidote. It is not a call for renunciation in the sense of hermitic withdrawal, but a sophisticated practice of discernment and redirection.

As Mircea Eliade observed in his seminal work "The Myth of the Eternal Return," many spiritual traditions, including those rooted in the Indic world, seek to move beyond the mundane, cyclical nature of temporal existence towards a more enduring, sacred dimension. Dama is a practical technique for this very transition. By consciously curbing the impulse to chase every fleeting sensation, the practitioner begins to dismantle the habitual patterns that bind the mind to the external. This is akin to the alchemical process described by Carl Jung, where the raw, undifferentiated matter of experience is refined through conscious effort, leading to a transformation of consciousness itself.

The practice of Dama is not a passive state but an active discipline. It requires a vigilant awareness of how the senses – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – constantly pull the mind outward, creating a mental chatter that obscures deeper truths. When the senses are allowed to run unchecked, they become gatekeepers to a world of ephemeral pleasures and distractions, preventing access to the inner sanctuary of awareness. The ancient yogis understood that true freedom lay not in accumulating external experiences, but in cultivating an inner landscape of stillness and clarity. This is echoed in the contemplative traditions across cultures, where the silencing of the discursive mind is a prerequisite for mystical insight.

Idries Shah, in his writings on Sufism, often highlighted the importance of "controlling the reins" of the self, a concept that resonates deeply with Dama. This implies a sophisticated understanding of the mind's mechanisms, recognizing that sensory input is not merely received but actively interpreted and amplified by our conditioning. Dama, therefore, becomes a practice of de-conditioning, of learning to observe sensory phenomena without immediate identification or reaction. It is through this cultivated detachment that the practitioner can begin to perceive reality with greater clarity, free from the distortions of desire and aversion. The ultimate aim is not to deaden the senses, but to render them transparent, allowing the light of consciousness to shine through unimpeded. It is in this quiet space, born of disciplined attention, that the profound truths of existence begin to reveal themselves, not as external pronouncements, but as inherent realizations.

RELATED_TERMS: Pratyahara, Yoga, Yama, Niyama, Mindfulness, Self-control, Asceticism, Concentration