The Tibetan Wheel of Life

Let’s have a look at the Tibetan Wheel of Life, a diagram or portray that depicts the Buddhist Wheel of Life.

It’s essential to notice that there isn’t any one Wheel of Life: as an alternative, there are a lot of depictions of the wheel that’s described within the unique Sanskrit root textual content. There are various variations, together with Chinese language, Tibetan and Indian.

Although colleges in Tibetan Buddhism are inclined to comply with Mahayana or Vajrayana teachings, the Wheel of Life is primarily a Theravadan educating. It visually depicts the traditional Buddhist view of demise and rebirth in a extremely symbolic approach.

There are two fundamental methods to interpret the diagram: as an outline of the cycle of a number of lifetimes for a person consciousness, or as the way in which samsara, karma and rebirth unfold second to second to second. We’ll focus on each on this article.

The Tibetan Wheel of Life: Core Ideas

Let’s put the wheel into some context.

Its unique Sanskrit identify is Bhavacakra. Bhava means disposition, mind-set, or the method of changing into, whereas cakra means circle, wheel, or cycle, a phrase additionally used to explain the seven chakras or vitality centres within the delicate physique.

It describes the workings of karma, whose Sanskrit root is kri-, and which implies to behave or to do. The elemental thought of karma is that the trigger and impact of our actions are interlinked: one implies the opposite. Equally, existence and non-existence additionally suggest each other, as do life and demise.

Thus the Bhavacakra reveals how we transfer via varied cycles or states in keeping with our actions and mind-set and their results: “this arises and that turns into.”

Here’s a typical, and significantly strikingly and delightful, instance of a Tibetan Wheel of Life. I encourage you to refer again to it as we cowl its varied elements.

The Tibetan Wheel of Life: Outer

We start with the figures and scenes that seem on the rim of the wheel or exterior it.

Probably the most eye-catching side of the Bhavacakra is the demon- or devil-like determine holding the wheel. This determine represents the origin of the complete wheel, the drive that sustains it, which is impermanence and samsara.

Discover that the demon is able to swallow the complete disc. From one perspective, this portrays the truth that demise might come at any time; from one other, that demise and rebirth are regularly occurring from second to second.

This determine undoubtedly has a daunting look, nevertheless it conceals a deeper that means: that demise and alter are a liberating issue. A smart particular person isn’t afraid of the demon, as a result of they realise the inevitability and necessity of demise and impermanence.

There are additionally pictures of the moon and an archetypal determine. These signify liberation and enlightenment, that are the core goals of all Buddhist teachings. By following the Buddhist path to enlightenment, we free ourselves from the present of samsara.

The Centre of the Wheel

Let’s flip our consideration to the wheel itself, starting with the central part.

Right here you’ll be able to see a pig, a snake and a rooster. These signify the Three Poisons of ignorance, aversion, and want respectively. Discover that the snake and chook emerge from the pig’s mouth and grasp its tail: want results in ignorance and aversion, which in flip lead again to want and perpetuate the complete cycle.

This motif sits on the centre of wheel to point out that every part else depends upon the Three Poisons.

The Second Layer

Within the layer surrounding the centre of the Wheel of Life, you discover two half circles, which signify optimistic and destructive karma.

The left half, colored white in our instance, portrays the ascension we expertise once we accumulate optimistic karma. It symbolises contentment, ascension and better states of being, all stemming from healthful intentions and reinforcing them. The extra we accumulate, the extra uplifted we turn into.

The darkish half, colored darkish turquoise in our instance, portrays the descension we expertise once we accumulate destructive karma. It symbolises struggling, decline and destructive states of consciousness, all of which stem from dangerous intentions and reinforce them. The extra we accumulate, the extra degraded we turn into.

The Third Layer

Now we transfer to the third layer, which is the biggest part of the wheel and is split into six sections. These signify the six realms of existence, into which we’re perpetually reborn. There are in actual fact 31 realms, however they’re chunked collectively into six classes within the Bhavacakra. In non-Tibetan variations, you’ll typically see 5 sections.

The three higher sections signify the three larger realms, particularly these of the Gods, Demi-gods and people. However, the underside half represents the three decrease realms, comprising animals, the hungry ghosts, and hell.

In accordance with Mahayana colleges, we’re reborn in a particular realm in every life in keeping with our accrued destructive karma. It’s essential to notice that every one realms terminate and usually are not eternal. “What goes up most come down”: we go on and on via the sequence of rebirth, residing in numerous realms, till we turn into enlightened and free ourselves from samsara.

Once more, you’ll be able to interpret this actually, as occurring over a sequence of lifetimes, of which your present human lifetime is only one. It’s also possible to see it metaphorically, as describing the course of our life because it unfolds second to second. We’re regularly biking amongst totally different states of consciousness, or realms, till we step exterior this realm and into the realm of nothingness or pure beingness.

The Rim: 12 Hyperlinks of Dependent Origination

Let’s transfer to the rim of the wheel, the place you see a collection of 12 photos that signify the 12 Hyperlinks of Dependent Origin, or the 12 steps of karma in motion.

The photographs symbolising them fluctuate from wheel to wheel, however the underlying theme is similar. In each diagrams above, the cycle begins at 7 o’clock.

Typically this image is a demon, which represents ignorance. Then, transferring clockwise, we’ve a potter’s wheel (potential, artistic impulse), a monkey (consciousness), a person in a ship (mixture of identify and kind), a person’s physique (senses), a pair of lovers (contact), a person an with arrow in his eye (ache concerned in notion), a lady with twins (want), a person with a basket (greedy), the gods of prosperity (development), a lady giving delivery (delivery), and two previous individuals (previous age). This leads us again to ignorance.

Once more, this may be considered actually as as soon as life cycle, or as an outline of how the karmic course of works second to second, how our subjective expertise of being a human with a way of identification, needs, senses, and so forth, is constructed second by second, and the impact this has.

The Tibetan Wheel of Life: The Larger Image

I have to admit, I discover The Wheel of Life fairly daunting. It’s a fearsome diagram, and it could possibly make you assume that life is only one large wheel of struggling, which sounds horribly destructive and disempowering.

On the identical time, I very a lot resonate with the spirit of it. No matter whether or not you agree with the underlying philosophy and all its trivialities, I’m certain you’ll be able to agree that life is basically a recreation of perpetuation: we’re regularly creating, for higher or for worse, and every part we create has internal and outer results. Solely by releasing ourselves from the sport can we cease being ensnared by it.

It additionally reveals us how our attachment to the human situation traps us in a recreation we can not win, a unending cycle of perpetuation that set off by our ignorance of our true transhuman and transpersonal being.

Moreover, the Bhavacakra can be a good looking and putting depiction of those profound concepts, and for that it deserves nice reward. We don’t must wade via the Buddhist canon to find the secrets and techniques of existence: one glimpse at this imposing but beautiful work takes us to the guts of the conundrum.