Wheel of Life (Source: the Dharmapala Thangka Centre)
http://www2.bremen.de/info/nepal/Gallery-2/Wheel/Wheel-Expl.htm
- Sanskrit: "Bhavacakra", tib.: "Srid pa khor lo" -
The
Wheel of Life describes the cause of all 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 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 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 beyond.
The Wheel of
Life is dedicated to all animated beings who have not yet attained the
first step of spiritual liberation [Nirvana]. It therefore illustrates
in a popular way the essence of the Buddhist teachings, the Four
Truths: the existence of earthly suffering, its origin and cause, the
cessation or prevention of misery and the practice path to liberation
from earthly suffering.
The Wheel of Life describes the cause of
all evil and its effects, mirrored in earthly phenomena just as it is
experienced by every man from the cradle to the grave. Picture by
picture it reminds us that everyone is always his or her own judge and
responsible for their own fate, because, according to Karma, causes and
their effects are the fruits of one's own deeds. This socalled fate is
demonstrated by the Lord of Dead, who like a monsterholds the Wheel of
Life in his claws; he is a symbol of the transitory nature of all
earthly phenomena.
The picturepath to follow begins in the
centre 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 and for lust and greed.
Who
ever delivers himself up to these basic evils walks along the Dark Path
leading to hells and bad rebirths. 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 centre 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 twelve interdependent causes and their effects
This is described by the twelve pictures of the outer circle:
The
first picture: Beginning with Ignorance, which is spiritual blindness,
illustrated by an old and sightless man with a stick, unable to find
his way [bottom left].
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, popularly called fate.
The
third picture depicts a tree and a monkey springing from branch to
branch: this symbolises the major consciousness which in ignorant
people springs uncontrolled from object to object. For this reason, by
analysis leading to the understanding of inner and outer phenomena,
Buddhist psychology always aims at the full control of consciousness.
The
fourth picture shows a boat with two people, symbolising name and form,
spiritual and physical energy, inseparably floating on the stream of
life.
The fifth picture is of a house with five windows and a
door, symbolising the five senses and the faculty of thinking, those
entrances [i.e. the sense organs] by which the outer world is perceived.
The sixth picture, a man and a woman embracing, demonstrates contact, the consequence of sensual perceptions.
The seventh picture is dedicated to the emotions by which one is struck, as by an arrow in the eye.
The
eighth picture, of a woman offering a drink to a man, illustrates
desire, stimulated by perceptions and emotions and leading to the
socalled thirst for life.
The ninth picture illustrates sensual
entanglement: the longing to keep that which is desired, represented by
a man plucking the fruits of a tree.
The tenth picture symbolises the procreation of a new life, here depicted by a beautiful bride.
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.
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 foetal
posture ready for the next rebirth and further misery in one of the
symbolic six worlds.
The Symbolic Six Worlds
The first of
these transitory worlds is the abode of the socalled Gods. It is a
temporal paradise achieved 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
unperishability. 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
paradisal state; their misery lies in their eventual comprehension of
the error.
To the right, the World of Titansis illustrated: they
are permanently warring against the gods and fighting for the
fulfillment of their own desires; their suffering is the endless war,
the resulted of envy and insatiable ambition. Here the Buddha appears
with a sword.
Still in the upper half of the wheel, to the left,
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 appears to help them.
In
the lower half of the wheel, to the left, the World of Animals
illustrates their special suffering: oppression by other beings. They
devour each other and become beasts of burden. Here Buddha appears with
a book.
The fifth world [bottom, right] 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 bellies. Here Buddha appears with a
symbolic treasure box, filled with spiritual jewels.
The last
world follows [bottom] 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 this is
administrative work, because the fate 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 appearance of the
Buddha in the Six Worlds commemorates also the potential Nirvana,
inherent in all beings, because all creatures, the proud gods as well
as insatiable monsters, the warring Titans suffering men, as well as
the tormented beings in hell and the animals, all have the possibility
of attaining salvation in a future good rebirth in the World of Men.
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