BHAVACAKRA
The Wheel of Life
Thee Wheel of Life illustrates in a popular way the essence of the Buddhist teachings, the Four Truths; the existing of earthly suffering; it’s origin and cause, the ending or prevention of misery and the practice path to liberation from suffering. The Wheel of Life describes the cause of evil and its effects. Mirrored in earthly phenomena just as it is experienced by everyone from the cradle to the grave. Picture by picture it reminds us that everyone is always his or her own judge and is responsible for their own fate, because, according to Karma, causes and their effects are the fruits of one’s own deeds.
The circular composition of the Wheel of Life guides the viewer from picture to picture along the black path or the white path. It leads him or her through the twelve interwoven causes and their consequences to rebirth in one of the so called Six Worlds. Projected on one plane, they fill the whole inner sphere of the Wheel of Life. But the meaning of this painting is to show the way out of all these worlds of suffering into the sphere beyound.
:: The Roots of Evil
The motive force that drives a wheel is at its hub. Thus, at the hub of the Wheel of Life are the cock, the snake and the pig, the forces that keep it turning. They are known as the Three Unwholesome Roots because from them grow all life’s evils, or as the Three Poisons because they corrupt us from within. The cock represents greed, the snake hatred and the pig ignorance, and it is these three that underlie all human bondage and misery. Each of the Three Poisons has one of the other Poisons in its mouth
:: The Dark Path
The picture path to follow begins in the center arrow of the wheel. There, the three spiritual poisons are depicted; a black pig for ignorance, a green snake for envy and hatred and a red cock for lust and greed. Whoever delivers himself up to these basic evils walks along the Dark Path leading to hell and bad rebirths
:: The White Path
The other way is the Path of Bliss leading to better rebirths and upwards to final liberation. Both paths are illustrated by the ring surrounding the center of the picture scroll: saints and sages lead the virtuous along the Path of Bliss, and demons, armed with nooses, drag the sinners along the Dark Path. In this way, the ignorant and the sinful, by the twelve interdependent causes and their effects are mercilessly driven through the Wheel of Life
:: The Symbolic SIX WORLDS or Realms
GODS: The first of these transitory worlds is the abode of the so called Gods. It is a temporal paradise archived by good deeds, and it is illustrated in the uppermost section of the wheel. Here the Buddha with the lute is seen reminding the gods of their limited pleasures and guarding them against vanity and haughtiness, which encourages them to believe in their own imperishability. But these gods are not yet freed from sorrow; they too after thousands of human years, are subject to old age and death. Their special suffering is the illusion of the eternity of their paradises state: their misery lies in their eventual comprehension of the error
SEMI GODS: To the right, the World of Titans is illustrated: they are permanently warring against the gods and fighting for the fulfillment of their desires; their suffering is the endless war, the result of envy and insatiable ambition. Here the Buddha appears with a flaming sword, and ministers to the titans
WORLD: In the upper half of the wheel, the World of Men is depicted: driven by egoism and ignorance, they suffer from the permanently repeated cycle of birth, sickness and death. The Buddha with the Begging bowl of a wandering monk comes to help them
ANIMALS: In the lower half of the wheel, the Worls of Animals illustrates their specific suffering: oppression by other beings. They devour each other and become beasts of burden. Here the Buddha holding a book appears to the animals
HUNGRY GHOSTS: The fifth world is the realm of the insatiable, greedy ghosts, suffering from hunger and thirst which they can neither appease nor quench: they present a ghastly picture with tightened throats and bloated belies. Here the Buddha appears with a jar of nectar for the hungry ghosts
HELL: The last world follows with the cold and hot hells. They are places of torment for all those who have committed evil deeds out of hatred and anger. But this infernal life, however long, is not eternal; after atoning for sins, rebirth into a better world is always possible. In the World of Hells an assistant of the Lord of the Dead weights the deeds of the deceased who are entering his kingdom, but these is administrative work, because the fate of the dead has already been decided by themselves. Here the Buddha appears, bearing a flame to bring light and hope even to these darkest regions.
:: The outer Rim with 12 Interdependent Causes
The outer rim of the wheel is divided into twelve sections and given such names as the Twelve Interdependent Causes and Effects or the Twelve Links of Causality
IGNORANCE: Beginning with ignorance, which is spiritual blindness, illustrated by an old and sightless man with a stick, unable to find his way
VOLITIONAL ACTION or CONDITIONING: The second picture shows a potter, his pots being symbolic of his own deeds (acting, speaking and thinking) with which he moulds his own karma, popularity called fate
CONSCIOUSNESS: The third picture depicts a tree and a monkey springing from branch to branch; this symbolizes the major consciousness which in ignorant people springs uncontrolled from object to object. For these reason, by analysis leading to the understanding of inner and outer phenomena, Buddhist psychology aims at the full control of consciousness
NAME and FORM: The fourth picture shows a boat with two people, symbolizing name and form, spiritual and physical energy, inseparably floating on the stream of life
SIX SENSORY ORGANS (i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind): The fifth picture is of a house with five windows and a door, symbolizing the fife senses and the faculty of thinking, those entrances (sense organs) by which the outer worlds is perceived
CONTACT or TOUCH: The sixth picture, a man and a woman embracing, demonstrates contact, the consequence of sensual perceptions
SENSATION: The seventh picture is dedicated to the emotions by which one is stuck, as by an arrow in the eye
DESIRE, CAVING THIRST: In the eighth picture, of a woman offering a drink to a man, illustrates desire, stimulated by perceptions and emotions and leading to the so called thirst for life
GRASPERING: The ninth picture illustrated sensual entanglement: the longing to keep that which is desires, represented by a man plucking the fruits from a tree
BECOMING or EXISTENCE: The tenth picture symbolizes the procreation of a new life, here depicted by a beautiful bridge
BIRTH: The eleventh picture shows the consequence: procreation is followed by birth, a woman giving birth to a child, shown here in the natural crouching position
DECACY and DEATH: The twelfth and last picture shows old age and death, the inevitable end of all earthly existence, illustrated here by bearers with a bier, the corpse swathed and in the fetal posture ready for the next rebirth and future misery in one of the symbolic six words
:: The Monster
The Monster of Impermanence appears above the rim of the Wheel, a ferocious face with three fiercely glaring red eyes and a crown of skulls. Holding the Wheel of Life in his claws, he is a symbol of the transitory nature of all earthly phenomena
:: The BODHISATTAVA Avalokiteshvara
The Lord who looks down in compassion, the Bodhisattava of Compassion who weeps as he beholds the manifold suffering of all beings in the six realms and the three sphere of existence. The Bodhisattava is the link between the mundane and the transcendental. He represents the drive within the mundane to fulfill itself in the transcendental
:: The BUDDA Figure
The appearance of the Buddha commemorates the potential Nirvana, inherent in all beings, because all creatures – the proud gods, the insatiable monsters, the warring titans, suffering men, as well as, the tormented beings in hell and the animals – have the possibility of attaining salvation in a future good rebirth in the World of Men