Wheel of Life
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Caption : Wheel Of Life
I'm not from the Trantric or Tibetean tradition but have always admire the painting on the wall of the Tibetan Gompa and the painting by the thangka painters. You can see so much concentration from these painters when they are painting. I was told that all these painters began their painting by first painting the picture on the Wheel of Life.
Lately, these picture appears when I was doing my meditation.
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So, I'll like to share my little understanding on the picture.
Caption : 1st circle and 2nd circle on the Wheel of Life
1st circle representing the 3 poisons
The central teaching of Buddhism is the 4 Noble Truth and the Eight Fold Path. Of it the 2nd Noble Truth is "The Cause of Suffering". So what causes the suffering? It's the Greed, Hatred and Delusion that cause us to suffer. Here in the picture, Greed is represented by the rooster, Hatred by the snake and Delusion by the pig. As the picture shows the rooster holding on to the tail of the pig, the pig biting the tail of the snake and the snake holding on to the tail of the rooster. This 3 animal (poisons) represent the cyclic existence of Life.
2nd circle representing karma
The 2nd circle have 2 halves circles of pictures in black and white background. The white shows people moving upward to a higher state of existence and the black shows people moving downward regressing into a lower state of existence. This picture represents karma, the law of cause and effect indicating the results from postive and negative action.
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Caption : 3rd circle on the Wheel of Life
3rd circle representing the Six Realms of Existence
This 3 circle is divided into 6 parts, the top 3 representing the higher realms and the bottom 3 representing the lower realms.
Top most : Deva Realm
Considered as the highest among the six realms of existence, it is characterized by the attributes of the Buddha. Enlightenment is considered to be easily attained in this realm; and everything sparkles with love and light.
Top Left : Aysura Realm
The second highest realm of existence is called the Demi-god realm, or the Jealous God Realm. It is believed to be the realm of Titans, Asuras, and is marked by jealousy and paranoia. Those born into this realm, though blessed with a high birth, are exceedingly jealous of the God realm and of each other. They are believed to spend most of their time fighting among themselves to compete.
Top Right : Human Realm
Being born into the human realm is considered to be a very rare occurrence. It is only in the human realm in which liberation from all the six states is possible. The human realm is characterized by doubt and inquisitiveness and the longing for something better.
Bottom Left : Animal Realm
The Animal Realm is characterized by ignorance which is equivalent to having a mind similar to that of an animal. The animal realm is nothing but suffering where there is no way in obtaining knowledge and taking steps towards enlightenment.
Bottom Right : Preta Realm or the Hungry Ghost Realm
This realm is characterized by craving/desire. It is believed that in the hungry ghost or preta realm, the inhabitants suffer from a greed that can never be satisfied. They have huge stomachs but tiny mouths, food and water is very scarce and when a preta sees food or water they are so delusional that they believe they are seeing blood, bile and other disgusting things of that nature. And even if a preta finds food or water and is able to consume it, it burns their throat and stomach like fire.
Bottom : Hell Realm
The lowest among the realms of existence is the hell realm. Buddhists believe that there are about 136 hells which are divided into “hot hells” and “cold hells”. The hell realms are looked upon as journey full of suffering; one born into this realm must not only endure suffering in their respective hell but also pass through each of lesser hells. This journey is supposed to take years to complete. In the course of which, even the Dharma is forgotten and even if it was remembered, the anguish is such that it makes practice impossible. The hell realm is characterized by acute aggression.
My Understanding
Many buddhist believed that each person will be reborn in accordance to there respective action (Karma) in their previous life. But my understanding is rather than a "physical place", it is the experience of the respective realm in accordance to our action here and now.
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Caption : the 12 links of the Dependent Origination in pictoral form
The 4th circle is the pictoral form of one of the most difficult to comprehend doctorine of dependent origination "the Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising".
- 1) Ignorance (Ajjiva) : This is refer to lack of knowledge or ignorance. It is often depicit as a blind man or a blind man with a walking stick. With Ignorance as condition, Mental Construct/Formation (Sankhra) arise.
- 2) Sankhra (Mental Construct or Mental Formation) refer to the shaping of the mental ideas. It is often depicit as a potter shapping pots or vessels. With Mental Formation as condition, Consciousness (Vijnana) arise.
- 3) Consciousness (Vijnana) is often depicit as a monkey grasping for fruit from a tree. With Consciousness as condition, Mind and Matter (Nama & Rupa) arise.
- 4) Mind and Matter (Nama & Rupa) refer to name and form, the physical and mental form of existence. It is depicit as 1 or 2 man on a boat in the river of samsara. With Mind and Matter as condition, the six senses (Sadayatana) gate arise.
- 5) Six Senses (Sadayatana) refers to the eye sense, ear sense, nose sense, tongue sense, body sense and the mind sense. It is ofen depict as a house with six windows. The Six Senses as condition, Contact (Sparsa) arise.
- 6) Contact (Sparsa) refers to the contact between the mind and mental object lead to a feeling of like or dislike. It is often depict as lovers hugging or kissing. With Contact as condition, Feeling (Vedana) arise.
- 7) Feeling (Vedana) refers to the feeling of like, dislike or a neutral feeling unpon contact. It is often depicit as a man with an arrow in his eye. With Feeling as condition, Craving (Tanha) arise.
- 8) Craving (Tanha) is the desire to wanting more or not wanting depending of the feeling. It is often depicit as a man drinking from a bowl. With Craving as condition, Clinging (Upadana) arise.
- 9) Clinging (Upadana) is the grasping or holding on to. It is often depicit as a man grabbing for the fruits on the tree. With Clinging as condition, Becoming (Bhava) arise.
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- 10) Becoming (Bhava) refer to the coming to be. It is often depict as a pregnant woman. With Becoming as condition, Birth (Jati) arise
- 11) Birth (Jati) refer to begin born or born again. It is often depicit as an woman giving birth to a child. With Birth as condition, Old Age and Death (Jaramarana) arise.
- 12) Old Age and Death (Jaramarana) is the process of aging, sickness and finally death. It is open depicit as a main carrying a corpse or burden. Upon death, the cycle repeats itself once again unless one is able to leave the samsara.
- 1) Ignorance (Ajjiva) : This is refer to lack of knowledge or ignorance. It is often depicit as a blind man or a blind man with a walking stick. With Ignorance as condition, Mental Construct/Formation (Sankhra) arise.
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Caption : Dependant Orgination
Dependant Origination cycle is sometime refers to the Past, The Present and The Future.
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Caption : Wheel of Life
This wheel of Life is being held by a fearsome looking monster Yama, the Lord of Death representing impermance. Sometime in placed of lord yama may be a skeleton instead. The head of yama is adorned with 5 human head symbolising the 5 aggregates (form, feeling, perception, mental formation & consciousness). The 3rd eye symbolise wisdom, the 4 limbs symbolise birth, old age, sickness & death and the tiger skin between the legs symbolise fearfulness.
At the top of the picture is a full moon symbolising liberation from samsara and the Buddha pointing to the moon symbolised the path to liberation.
There's so much meaning to just one picture and it is indeed a powerful picture.
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Tibetan Gompa symbolises sentience and buddha as same bodhicitta. The wheel main focus is the central point of origin or center of the Wheel that when neither beginning nor ending, sentience deviates from its essence and thus fall into illusion of suffer in the wheel of life, but the Tibetan Gompa (main body) in the picture never lost it. So, for those not vegetarianism yet, do be empathatic by adopting vegetarianism way of life, as least a few days per week, as you are enjoying the flesh of your ancestors, friends, colleagues, love ones who in the animals kingdom. Metta to all