We know birth, death and rebirth, yet were never born and will never die. We feel pleasure and pain, and yet can sense a separateness from pleasure and pain. We don’t see ourselves here, however, we see ourselves there in the glass! We’re both on the wheel of life and death, and off it, simultaneously. It’s like seeing one’s face in any mirror-there we are in the glass, but we know we’re not there, we’re really here in front of it. Though it seems real while it’s happening, these ups and downs are just a mirage-true in one sense, but not in another. It’s all just an image of our lives, our minds. The figure of death holds up the mirror so that we can see our own reflections. Blindness to what we are leads to self-centred acts, which leads to self-centred consciousness, which leads to believing in ‘me’ and ‘mine’, which leads to regarding the six bodily senses as personal attributes, which leads to the belief that it is ‘me’ making contact with ‘you’ or with some other ‘thing’, which leads to feelings of ‘like’ or ‘dislike’, which leads to craving, which leads to grasping, which leads to striving, which leads to a sense of being in the world, which leads to identifying with the decaying process, which leads to identifying with death, which leads to the ignorance which created the action which created the consciousness which created the name and form which created the six senses. Death, therefore, leads on again to ignorance, karma. These twelve represent a complete life, but the links are attached to each other into a chain because there is no first cause, no beginning, and no ending of existence. Every aspect of life is linked to a cause and a result. Each link represents something specific-one is ignorance, and this is linked to karma (action), and sequentially on it goes to consciousness, name and form, six senses, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, becoming, birth, decay and death. According to the teachings of Buddhism these twelve just goes round and round. The rim of the wheel, the tyre, is a chain of events known as ‘the twelve links of dependent origination’. Remove one and the axis will collapse, bringing the wheel crashing down. It is these which make the world go round. These three represent the greed, hatred and delusion that dogs our lives. We find ourselves first in one condition and then in another-suddenly, often, without warning.Īt the hub of the wheel are three creatures-a pig, a snake and a cock-each biting the tail of the other. This is one of the basic points of this teaching it shows us how easy it is to go from one state to another, or how impossible it is to remain in one of them, whether we want to or not. The realms are transitory and relate to feelings and conditions of mind. And when we’re not obsessed or taken over by any extreme states of mind, we reside in a fairly harmonious, balanced state as a so-called sane, human living. Sometimes also jealousy takes us-we want what someone else has, and we want it now, or we at least wish they didn’t have it, anyway. From time to time, we’re also in heaven where everything seems to be just perfect, for the moment. Occasionally-or more than occasionally-we enter hell and suffer the torment of grief, fear and anguish. Or, we’re like animals-we live just for our own basic needs all the while, unconcerned with the needs of others. Sometimes we are like hungry ghosts-we can’t settle in our place we always want something, or more of something-hungry for this or that. In each, the Buddha is portrayed offering an escape, because none of these situations is totally satisfactory, not even the tranquillity of heaven. There are six realms within this wheel-a heavenly realm a realm of jealousy an animal realm a hell realm a realm of hungry ghosts and a human realm. There is no physical face staring back at us, however, instead the reflection is of the experiences in our lives-all the possibilities open to us-in the form of a wheel. He is shown holding up a great, round mirror. The first thing that one notices in these vivid Tibetan scrolls ( thangkas), is the a large character representing the Lord of Death. It has everything in it as far as the Buddha’s teaching is concerned, and the Tibetans, among others, have used it since time immemorial. Most will agree, I am sure, that the Wheel of Life never loses its value as an object of contemplation. I was therefore prompted to write this short introduction a s a reminder of this fascinating teaching-aid. I received an interesting piece recently by Jamie Gargett-which follows this preamble-about the realm of the hungry ghosts on the Wheel of Life.
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