Sitha

A mind that scatters like the wind,
a mind as still as a mountain,
if I cannot stop the thoughts that fly off to infinity,
then, when I look at it, this mind isn’t even mine

However great the toil the body bears,
if the heart has gained no joy,
I could be left all alone, stranded
in the middle of a scorching desert
if the heart has gained no joy…

the mind that laughs on the day of union,
the mind that weeps on the day of parting,
whatever anyone says, whatever anyone does,
one day the mind lets everything go

A mind like a spinning wheel,
a mind that can find no beginning, no end,
if it can become a refuge to a helpless person,
to someone with no one at all,
that mind shines forever, that mind

A mind that scatters like the wind,
a mind as still as a mountain,
if I cannot stop the thoughts that fly off to infinity,
then, when I look at it, this mind isn’t even mine

A calm, philosophical song, almost Buddhist in temper, meditating on the nature of the mind itself, the sitha. It opens on the mind’s contradictions: it scatters like the wind and yet can be still as a mountain, and if he cannot stop the thoughts that fly off to infinity, then, he realises, this mind is not even his own, an insight into how little we truly govern our own thinking.

The middle draws out the difference between outer effort and inner peace. However hard the body toils, if the heart wins no joy from it, you can end up stranded and alone in the middle of a scorching desert. The mind laughs on the day of union and weeps on the day of parting, swinging with circumstance, and yet, whatever anyone says or does, one day it simply lets everything go. Nothing it clings to lasts.

The close finds the mind’s true worth. Like a spinning wheel with no beginning or end, restless and searching, it is nonetheless capable of one shining thing: if it can become a refuge for a helpless person, for someone who has no one, then that mind shines forever. Sung by Senaka Batagoda, it is a serene, reflective song about the wild, ungovernable, impermanent mind, and the one thing that redeems it, its power to be a shelter for another.