Ram
The ram represent a determination to overcome the 3 poisons of ignorance, desire, and aversion.
The flip side of the determination is also represented by the ram and illustrates how the three poisons of ignorance, desire, and aversion give rise to the whole karmic phenomenology of the six realms of cyclic existence.
The rams blind following of instinct symbolizes the darkness of primordial ignorance or confusion.
The rams desire to mate with the ewes is a symbol of lust or attachment with an insatiable appetite for the fulfillment of its desires and a territorial male aggression that will tolerate no rivalry:
in this there is the aversion, hatred or anger which arises from attachment and the unpredictable instinct to strike out at any moment.
This is a cyclic phenomenon; the root cause of the primal ignorance gives rise to attachment, which in turn gives rise to aversion, which in turn creates further ignorance: which in the final analysis is a great thing to overcome.
