The Wheel of Life or Existence is a pictorial representation of the Law of
Dependent Origination
(Paticca-Samuppada). It is usually depicted on the
wall facing the main shrine of the Lhakang
(a hall housing the principle
deity) or Dukhang (a hall of assembly for the monks). It is also an
unique
and superb representation of Samsara, the world of Birth and Death.
At the rim of the Wheel are the twelve illustrations which
represent the Twelvefold Chain of
Causation whereby sentient beings are
ensnared life after life. It can be explained thus:
1. A Blind Man as primordial Ignorance.
2. A Potter as Activity which brings about Karmic
Foundations.
3. An Active Monkey as Consciousness.
4. Two Men In A Boat as Name and Form.
5. Houses With Six Windows as Six Extrances.
6. Love-Making as Contact.
7. Arrow
In The Eye as Feeling.
8. Drinking as Thirst or Craving.
9. A Monkey Grasping Fruits as Grasping.
10. A
Pregnant Woman as Becoming or Existence.
11. Childbirth as Birth.
12. Man Carrying A Corpse representing Decay which results in Death to
be followed by
rounds of birth and
death endlessly within the samsaric existence.
The Yama (Lord of Death) holds the Six Realms of Existence with
his jaws and claws. It
reminds us of impermanence and shows that there is
not a single being in samsaric existence
who is outside the control of
death.
The upper part of the Wheel depicted the higher rebirths and the
lower part of the Wheel
depicted the lower rebirths. The higher rebirths are
the Realm of the Devas, the Realm of the
Asuras and the Realm of the Human.
The lower rebirths are the Realm of the Animals, the
Realm of the Hungry
Ghosts and the Realm of the Hell Beings.
The Realm of the Devas or Gods is the happiest state as those
who dwell there enjoy
continual pleasure and sensual delight, mitigated only
by the fact that they too must eventually
die and pass on to the other
states once their karmic forces die out. Birth into this realm is
mainly due
to one having lived virtuously and generously towards others.
The Realm of the Asuras is populated by 'jealousy gods' or
demigods who should be
as happy as the Devas, but their minds are clouded
with anger and envy over the better
fortunes of the Devas. A close look at
the picture will reveal that there is a tree growing
from this realm to that
of the Devas. This tree is known as the "Wish-Fulfilling Tree" whose
fruits
and flowers can fulfill every desire which they are unable to get hold of. This
causes
them great frustrations, anger and jealousy and they therefore
constantly wage wars against
the Devas to claim the fruits of their tree.
However, they are always defeated because the
Devas are far more powerful
than the Asuras due to their karmic disposition. Despite being
living in a
heavenly realm, the Asuras live in great suffering because of not getting what
they
want. Next, the suffering is further increaseed by their being born
with monstrous looks
while their women are exquisitively beautiful. This
situation causes their females to yearn
for the love of the handsome gods
and rejecting their own advances. Life in this realm is
always filled with
quarrels, fighting and great violence.
The Human Realm is where we are. It is filled with the ups and
downs of life and we should
be grateful for these conditions to be around.
They bring about the awareness of the bliss of
happiness and the misery of
suffering and therefore become the very causes that lead to spiritual
practice. It is therefore the most fortunate realm to take rebirth into, the
world where one is able
to listen to the Dharma and practice it to attain
Buddhahood. In the heavenly realm the Devas
are far too happily engrossed
with their worldly pleasure to think about further cultivation of
virtues
while the Asuras are too much affected by anger, jealousy and frustrations of
their
existence. Those who are born into the lower or suffering realms are
too concerned with their
pains and survivial to think about spiritual
practice or enlightenment. Hell beings only await the
exhaustion of their
karma to end their indescribable sufferings while the Pretas or Hungry Ghosts
are totally distorted by the deep frustrations to satisfy their unsatisfied
passions. Animals, while
suffering less, are born stupid due to the result
of their willfull ignorance and are therefore unable
to derive any benefit
from Dharma. They live only by instinct and must face a daily routine of
searching for food or mate and hunting or being hunted.
The Realm of the Animals is populated by three types of animals,
1. those who dwell in the
outer oceans, 2. those who dwell in the darkness
between the continents, and 3. those who
are scattered in the higher realms.
Those who dwell in the outer oceans are said to be countless
animals
dissimilar in name and type. Common of all of them is the suffering of stupidity
and
delusion. For examples, the suffering of many small fish being eaten
simultaneously by a large
sea creature, and the like. There is a suffering
caused by many small ones penetrating the large
ones and constantly eating
away by them. The nagas have suffering caused by a shower of
hot sands, and
by the garudas harming them. Common to all is the suffering of suffocation and
bad smell, the suffering of uncertainty of habitat and companions, the
suffering of cold in the
winter and heat in the summer and so on. The
sufferings which abound for them are beyond
description. Those who dwell in
the darkness between the continents are animals which have
sufferings
similar to first type. On top of these sufferings, they cannot even see their
own
outstretched or bent-in arms and legs. Due to the power of hunger and
thirst, they have the
suffering of not finding anything to eat except what
appears right in front of them. Those who
are scattered in the higher
realms, are animals that are ownerless and that are slaughtered,
either by
other animals or humans and non-humans for the sake of pearls, furs, bones,
flesh,
skin, and the like. Those who have owners have, on top of the above
sufferings, the sufferings
of being enslaved, employed, bound, beaten, and
finally slaughtered. Again, their sufferings
are beyond conception.
Realm of the Pretas or Hungry Ghosts are beings which oftenly
have great terrible sufferings
created by hunger, thirst, cold, heat,
weariness, and fear will have to be endured. In general, it
is said that
there are about thirty-six types of hungry ghosts but if it is categorized,
there are
three: those with 1. external obscurations, 2. internal
obscurations, and 3. the obscuration of
obscurations. They are born with a
mouth just the size of a needle's eye, a throat as narrow as
a horse-tail's
hair, limbs as thin as grass-stalks, a belly as vast as a mountain,
frazzled hair,
dried-out skin and flesh molded onto the bones. One's body
emits groaning sounds and creaks
like the pulling of an old cart. Moving
about, the joints cause a great pain as intense as the blaze
of a fire. With
many such pains of weariness and faitgue, however much one searches, one does
not find food and drink. And even if once in a great while one finds a
little, it is guarded by a
large numbers of others who are more powerful
than oneself. Carrying weapons, they beat,
pelt, and mistreat one in various
ways. Not being allowed to eat, one experiences suffering of
both body and
mind. Still, when one begins to eat, the food will not go into the mouth. Even
if
it enters, it does not go past the throat. Even if it passes through, it
is of no benefit on reaching
the stomach, for the distress of hunger and
thirst becomes greater than before. Others have
the sufferings when one is
eating the food, the food immediately blazes up into great flames,
so that
tongues of flame flutter out of one's nose and mouth and one utters a terrible,
great noise.
One has many sufferings of eating hot sand while other fights
the others for food and eats the
pus of ripened goiters on one's throat. For
all categories of hungry ghosts, even the light of the
summer moon causes
heat and that of the winter sun causes cold. Though one approaches a
fruit-bearing tree or a great river, these dry up when merely looked upon
with wishful thoughts
of enjoying them. In this way, one has inexpressible
sufferings.
Realms of the Hell Beings are beings who have the suffering of
the cold hells, the hot hells,
and the neighboring and minor hells. The
eight cold hells are: 1. The Blister Hell, 2. The
Bursting Blister Hell, 3.
The Brrr Hell, 4. The Alasss Hell, 5. The Chattering Teeth Hell, 6.
The
Utpala Flower Hell, 7. The Cracked Like a Lotus Hell and 8. the Greatly Cracked
Like
a Lotus Hell. The eight hot hells are: 1. The Reviving Hell, 2. The
Black Line Hell, 3. The
Crushing Hell, 4. The Wailing Hell, 5. The Great
Wailing Hell, 6. The Hot Hell, 7. The Greatly
Hot Hell and 8. The Unceasing
Hell. The neighbouring hells and minor hells are found on each
sides of the
hot hells. They are known as The Fire Trench Hell, The Mud of Putrid Corpses
Hell, The Path of Blazes Hell, The Forest of Swords, The Shamali Trees and
the Riber Hell.
Thus there are sixteen neighbouring hells. Moreover, there
are indescribable hells such as ones
which are like pillars, like rows of
seats, and like brooms, and hells wherein there is pleasure
by day but
suffering at night, and others where in nights hold pleasure, but days have
suffering.
It is said that even the very greatest sufferings of the Human
Realm cannot become an example
of even the slightest of the agonies of the
hells.
In the centre of the Wheel, we can see the Three Animals which
represent the Three Poisons.
The Rooster or Pigeon represents passionate
desire and attachment, the Green Snake represents
hatred, emity and
aversion, and the Boar represents the darkness of ignorance and ego-delusion.
Usually, they are depicted as biting each other's tails, linking in such a
way that they too form a
circle because Ignorance, Hatred and Desire
condition each other and are inseparably connected.
We must learn to
recognise these poisons as the forces that control our qualitiy of life and take
proper steps to quell and remove them.
Death is not the final extinction of the mind, but rather marks
the transition between one
life and another. Just as we move up and down
within one lifetime, experiencing alternating
pleasure and pain, so too do
we move up and down from one life to the next depending
upon the positive
and negative actions which we have performed. The 'dream-like' intermediate
state between death and rebirth, or bardo, is illustrated in the half black
and white circle
located between the hub of delusions and the Six Realms.
The Six Bardo Beings are shown
in the forms they will take after they 'wake
up' in their next rebirth realms. On the left are
depicted future human,
demigod and god beings going upwards towards the higher realms,
while on the
right future animal, hungry ghost and hell beings are shown descending towards
the lower realms.
The figure of the Buddha in the right hand corner, standing
outside the Wheel, shows that
buddhas are outside samsara. By pointing to
the moon, which symbolises the attainment of
nirvana, the cool peaceful
state of mind free from all delusion and suffering, the Buddha shows
the way
to attain liberation from the misery of cyclic existence.
In order to break the chain of perpetual suffering, death and
rebirth, symbolized by the wheel,
we need to eliminate the fundamental
delusion of Ignorance. We must always remember that the
Samsara is not an
external prison; it is a prison made by our own mind. It will never end by
itself,
but by deiligently practising the true spiritual path and thereby
eliminating our delusions we can
bring our samsara to an end.
