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The First Ring

Out from the innermost circle, the first ring is divided into two (not shown at all upon the Tibetan version illustrated here), one half with a white background and the other having a black background. In the former, four people are seen ascending: the bhikkhu holding a Dhamma-light goes on in front, being followed by a white-robed nun (upasika), after which come a man and a woman in present day dress. The four of them represent the Buddhist Community made up of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. They are representative of anyone practicing the path of good conduct in mind, speech and body. They represent as well two classes of persons: "going from dark to light" and "going from light to light." In the first case, they are born in poor circumstances and have few opportunities due to past evil kamma but in spite of this, they make every effort to practice Dhamma for their own good and others' happiness. Thus they go towards the light, for the fruit of their present kamma will be pleasant and enjoyable. The latter class, "going from light to light," are those people who have attained many benefits with plentiful opportunities in their present life, due to having done much good kamma in the past. In the present they continue with their upward course devoting themselves to further practice of Dhamma in their lives.

What is this Dhamma-practice? There are two lists both of ten factors which could be explained here but the space required would be too great for more than a summary. The first list is called the ten Skilled Kamma-paths,[7] three of which pertain to bodily action, four to speech and three to mental action. "Paths" here means "ways of action" and "skillful" means "neither for the deterioration of one's own mind nor for the harm of others." The bodily actions which one refrains from are: destroying living creatures, taking what is not given, and wrong conduct in sexual desires. In speech, the four actions which should be avoided are: false speech, slanderous speech, harsh speech and foolish chatter. The three actions of mind which should be avoided are: covetousness, ill-will, and wrong views. Anyone who restrains himself from these ten, practices a skillful path, a white path which accords with the first steps of training in Dhamma.

The other ten factors are called the Ten Ways of making Puñña[8] (meaning actions purifying the heart). They have a different range from the first list of ten, being divided into three basic ways and seven secondary ones. The basic factors are giving (dana), moral conduct (sila), and mind development (bhavana), while the remaining seven are counted as aspects of these three: reverence, helpfulness, dedicating one's puñña to others, rejoicing in other's puñña, listening to Dhamma, teaching Dhamma, and straightening out one's views. These actions lead to uprightness, skillful conduct and to the growth in Dhamma of oneself, as well as the benefit of others.

Those who tread upon this white path going toward the light are able to be born in two bourns: either as men, or as "shining-ones" -- the gods in the three sorts of heavens of sensuality, subtle form, and formlessness. A life of good practice is thus usually followed by a life in one of these two bourns, called sugati or the good bourns. But Lord Buddha does not declare that everyone who has led such a life is necessarily born there. This depends not only upon the intensity of their Dhamma-practice but also upon the vision which arises at the time of death. Through negligence at the last moment, one can slip into the three evil bourns difficult to get out of. The round of Samsara is very dangerous, even for those who lead almost blameless lives. More of this below. To be born in the two good bourns is the fruiting of puñña or skillful kamma and the more purified one's heart, the higher and more pleasant will be one's environment.

In the dark half of the ring, naked beings are tumbling downwards in disorder. Their nakedness symbolizes lack of shame in doing evil and their disorder shows the characteristic of evil to cause disintegration and confusion. "Downwards" means that they are falling, by the commission of sub-human actions, to sub-human states of existence. In some Tibetan versions they are chained together and pulled downwards by a female demon who squats at the bottom. This demoness is craving of tanha (a noun of female gender). This craving is, of course, not outside those who follow the path of evil but in their own hearts. On this path there are two sorts of persons, those "going, from light to dark" and those "going from dark to dark." The former have good opportunities in this life but do not make use of them, or else use them for evil ends without laying up any further store. Instead, they prefer from delusion to store up evil now for fear and distress in future. Those who go from dark to dark do not have even the advantages of the former group for they are born in conditions of deprivation due to past evil kamma and then, driven on by the fruit of suffering received by them, they commit more evil.

The Ten Unskillful Kamma-paths are the ways along which they walk: destroying living creatures, taking what is not given, wrong conduct in sexual desires; false speech, slanderous speech, harsh speech, foolish chatter; covetousness, ill-will and wrong-views. They do not delight in making puñña but are by nature, mean, immoral, undeveloped in mind, proud, selfish, grasp at possessions, envious, never listen to Dhamma and certainly never teach it, while their hearts are ridden with confused and contradictory views and ideas.

For their pains, having pursued evil, these beings upon their death, already having destroyed "humanness" in themselves, fall down to the three lower states which are called the Evil Bourns (duggati). These are, in order of deterioration and increase of suffering: the hungry ghosts, the animals, and the hell-wraiths. Truly a case of:

do good, good fruit

do bad, bad fruit

as the Thai proverb says. These two half-circles are also an illustration of the refrain which closes every one of the Avadana stories: "Thus bhikkhus, completely black kamma bears completely evil effects; completely white kamma bears completely good effects; and composite kamma bears composite effects. Therefore, bhikkhus, abstain from doing completely black kamma and composite kamma; strive to do kamma completely white. Thus, O bhikkhus, must you train yourselves."

The Five Divisions

The two good bourns and the three evil bourns contain the whole range of possibilities for rebirth. In most Tibetan illustrations, including the one shown here, a sixth bourn is given, by dividing the devas and asuras (the gods and anti-gods or titans). In this section the five, or six bourns will be described, together with the ways to get to them. Birth in any bourn is a fruit or effect and here we shall see the causes.

A person who has done evil persistently, or even one heavy crime, is likely to see at the time of death a vision, either relating to his past evil actions, or else to the bourn which his past evil actions or kamma have prepared for him. When his physical body is no longer a suitable basis to support life, his mind creates a body ghostly and subtle in substance, which then and there begins to experience one of the evil bourns. But in case his kamma drives him to be born as animals, there is the vision of animals copulating and he is dragged into the womb or egg of those animals.

Kamma which leads to birth as an animal is a strong interest in the things which mankind shares with the animals, that is, eating, drinking and sex. If a man strengthens the animal in himself, to become an "animal-man," he can expect only to be born as an animal. Human beings interested in only these things, strengthening the Evil Root of Delusion in their minds, have already the minds of animals. There is no essential "man-ness" which can prevent such a catastrophe, for no unchanging human soul exists. If a man wishes to guard himself against this, he must protect the conditions for humanity (manussa-dhamma) which are the Five Precepts. Sinking below the level of conduct of these precepts, is to sink into the sub-human levels. Once rebirth as an animal has taken place it is by no means easy to gain human birth again, as Venerable Nagarjuna has written:

More difficult is it to rise

from birth as animal to man,

Than for the turtle blind to see

the yoke upon the ocean drift;

Therefore, do you being a man

practice Dhamma and gain its fruits.

-- L.K. 59 ("The Letter of Kindheartedness" by Acarya Nagarjuna, in "Wisdom Gone Beyond", Social Service Association Press of Thailand, Phya Thai Road, Bangkok, Siam.)

Kamma dragging one to the hells, which are the most fearful and miserable states, are actions involving hatred, killing, torture and violence generally. People lead themselves to experience hell because they have made the Evil Root of Aversion very strong within themselves.

On the other hand, those who have strengthened the Evil Root of Greed while they were men, having been mean, possessive and selfish, are liable to arise as spirits with strong cravings forever unsatisfied, for which reason they are known as "hungry" ghosts.

However, it does sometimes happen that one who has led an evil life turns sincerely to religion upon his deathbed. When this occurs, with his mind centered upon Dhamma and purified by faith, a person like this may be reborn among men, even arise among the devas. That evil kamma which has been done though it may have no chance to fructify in those good bourns, remains a potential for creating very unpleasant results whenever conditions are favorable to its fruition. The reverse of this may happen, as when good and noble men become distracted at death and so remember some small evil done, or see a vision of evil done in some past life, the result of which is the arising of unwholesome consciousness leading to the evil bourns.

It is more usual for one who has followed the path of white deeds to be born as a man or among the gods. The basis for the former is the practice of the Five Precepts which constitute the level of humanness. They are in brief: refraining from destroying living creatures; refraining from taking what is not given; refraining from wrong conduct in sexual desires; refraining from false speech, and refraining from distilled and fermented intoxicants which cause carelessness. Those who refrain from such things, having really lived as men, having strengthened the base of humanness in their own hearts, are born again as men well-endowed with the riches of fine qualities; of varied opportunities, as well as with a wealth of worldly goods.

The path to the heavens is cultivated by those who make special efforts to live with purity and self-restraint, exercising loving-kindness toward all beings and so purifying their minds to some extent through meditation. At the time of death, having fulfilled the ten Skillful Kamma paths and the ten Ways of Making Puñña, the heart will be joyful and peaceful to varying degrees, which will result in the experience of arising in one of the many heavenly levels according to the degree of purity and concentration which has been attained.

All these possibilities are within the scope of the mind, the quality of which can be changed in this way or that by kamma, good or bad. From the type of mind which performs the duty of relinking-consciousness at birth, is determined the kind of sense-organs possessed by a being, and hence the kind of world experienced by him. Perception varies -- as the famous Buddhist verse puts it:

As a water-vessel is

variously perceived by beings:

Nectar to celestials,

is for a man plain drinking-water,

While to the hungry ghost it seems

a putrid ooze of pus and blood,

Is for the water serpent-spirits

and the fish a place to live in,

While it is space to gods who dwell

in the sphere of infinite space.

So any object, live or dead,

within the person or without --

Differently is seen by beings

according to their fruits of kamma.

From such verses we catch a glimpse of the mysterious depths of the mind, and of the truth of the Exalted Buddha's words which open the Dhammapada:

Before all dhammas goes the mind; Mind is the chief, mind-made are they...

To come now to a description of the picture. In the world of the gods or "shining-ones" (deva, upper right, but topmost in the Tibetan version), the gilded palaces and glittering jewel trees of the gods of sensuality are shown in the lower part of the drawing. The Tibetan picture shows more details of these superlatively beautiful worlds in which there is also a kind of subtle sexual relationship. Being based upon sensuality, as this world of men is, these devas must also pay the price for this -- which is conflict. This conflict is an ever-recurring battle with the asuras, the anti-gods or titans who have in past times fallen through their quarrelsome nature from the heavens and who now enviously try to invade the celestial realms. In my picture, they share a segment of the world of gods and they are equipped with ancient and modern weapons and are in the dress of soldiers. But they do not only battle with the gods but also among themselves and so a bit of insubordination is depicted as well. The Tibetan picture gives them a world to themselves among the frontiers of which they are fleeing from the victorious heavenly hosts led upon a very large elephant by Sakka, the lord of the sensual-realm gods. These titans only understand force, so the Buddha shown in their world bears a sword with which to duly impress them, after which they may be able to hear a little Dhamma. By contrast, the Buddha appearing among the gods bears a lute, in order to lure them into listening to Dhamma sung in exquisite strains, for it was believed that they would not be interested in mere spoken words!

Above the battling of the sensual-realm gods dwell the Brahmas of subtle form and of formlessness, experiencing meditative happiness, serene joy, or sublime equanimity. The Tibetan picture also shows a magnificent Brahma world palace in the upper lefthand corner. About all this heavenly splendor, Ven. Nagarjuna warns us:

"Great King, although celestial worlds

have pleasures great to be enjoyed,

Greater the pain of dying there.

From often contemplating this

a noble person does not wish

For transient heavenly joys."

-- L.K. 98

He goes on to speak of the devas as those

"Who, dying from celestial realms

with no remaining merit fruits

Must take up their abode

according to the karma past, --

With birth as beast or hungry ghost,

or else arise in hell."

-- L.K. 101

The Brahmas of formlessness dwelling for unthinkable ages in the realms of infinite space, infinite consciousness, no-thingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception being quite without any form, naturally cannot be shown, but even their states are not eternal, but come to an end.

Among men (upper left in both pictures), the progress of the human-being is shown: birth (a perambulator; old-age, sickness (hospital sign) and death (a bloated corpse in a graveyard), but with this basis of dukkha, men can also understand Dhamma. Lord Buddha, foremost among men, sits highest in the human world teaching Dhamma in a forest grove to his first five disciples. In the original version which my picture follows, He is shown only in the human world, thus emphasizing the value of human birth, during which it is possible to gain insight into Dhamma. The religious aspirations of man are represented by a Hindu temple, a Christian church and Muslim mosque, while a war and a bar show his tendencies towards aversion and greed. The Tibetan picture shows several mundane activities such as plowing the fields, while people climb towards the top of the picture where there is a temple in which they can listen to Dhamma. In the center stands a Buddha carrying the almsbowl and staff, showing to men the way of peacefulness leading to Sublime Peace of Nibbana. This is shown in my picture by the sure Dhamma-path which issues from the mouth of the Exalted Buddha. Upon this way a bhikkhu lends a hand to help householders out of the realms of samsara, leading them forward upon the Eightfold Path. Venerable Nagarjuna has this to say:

"Who though he has been born a man

yet gives himself to evil ways,

More foolish is he than the fool

who fills with vomit, urine, dung

Golden vessels jewel-adorned --

harder man's birth to gain than these."

-- L.K. 60

Hungry ghosts or peta (lower right in my picture, lower left in the Tibetan) crave for food and drink but find that it turns to fire or foul things when they are able to get it. I have shown a huge moon and a tiny sun, as the verse says:

"From want of merit, hungry ghosts

in summer find the moon is hot,

in winter sun is cold;

Barren are the trees they see

and mighty rivers running on

dry up whene'er they look at them."

-- L.K. 95

Then there is a sky-going peta being torn to shreds by birds, as seen by Venerable Moggallana; one "resting" upon rocks under a leafless tree which is the simile used by the Exalted Buddha in the suttas to symbolize the sole comforts of this realm, and two ghosts sunk in the water up to their lower lips, their gaping mouths just a little too high to get any of it. The state of Tantalus was obviously birth among the hungry ghosts! The ghosts all have bloated bellies, extremely slender necks and "needle-mouths." Their sufferings are illustrated further in the Tibetan. They have to bear intense cravings for food and drink and then more sufferings when they manage to get a little of it, for it turns to swords and knives in their bellies. The Buddha in this "abundantly painful" realm carries celestial food to allay the ghosts' cravings. In the words of Ven. Nagarjuna:

"Lord Buddha has declared the cause

why beings come to birth as ghosts,

torments to endure

For when as men they gave no gifts,

or giving gave with avarice --

They ghostly kamma made."

-- L.K. 97

The animals, in the Tibetan illustration, are being encouraged in the Dhamma by a Buddha holding a book, illustrating the point that animals have little ability to understand and are in need of wisdom. My picture illustrates the sufferings of animal-life as described by Ven. Nagarjuna:

"Then should you come to birth as beast

many are the pains --

Killing, disease and gory strife

binding, striking too.

Void of peaceful, skillful acts

beasts slay and kill without remorse.

Some among beasts are slain because

they produce pearls, or wool, or bones,

or valued are for meat or hide.

Others are pressed to do men's work

by blows or sticks or iron hook,

by whipping them to work."

-- L.K. 89-90

In the animal-world where feelings experienced are "painful, sharp and severe," one can see the dukkha, the hunter and the hunted, in my illustration. The birds of the air are being shot while a vulture is feeding on its prey. A wasp struggling in the net of a spider represents the horrors of life among the insects, while among the larger animals, a buffalo is being forced to work, a deer is being shot and a lion feeds upon his prey. The fish fare no better and are shown being devoured by larger fish, or else hooked and netted by men. Slithering down the division of this world from the hells, there is a gecko. The Tibetan picture illustrates the diversity of animal life and shows, under the waters, the palace of the serpent-spirits or naga, half snake and half man.

The hells, which are not permanent states of course, have some new horrors of our day: for railway lines run into a concentration camp from the chimneys of which belches sinister black smoke, while a uniformed member of some secret police force compels a suppliant hell-wraith to swallow molten metal. Towards the viewer flows the river of caustic soda called Vaitarani which burns the flesh off the bones of those swirling along in it, mingled with a stream of blood from the clashing mountains. Whatever torments hell-wraiths experience, though their bodies are mangled, crushed and ripped apart, yet they survive still for vast ages of time experiencing feelings which are "exclusively painful, sharp and severe," unrelenting and uninterrupted:

"As highest is the bliss that comes

from all desires' cessation --

No higher bliss than this!

So worst the woe that's known in hell

Avici with no interval --

No woe is worse than this!"

-- L.K. 85

In the foreground is the hell of filth where hell-wraiths, who as men had corrupted the innocent, are devoured by gigantic maggots while floundering in a stinking ooze. To the left are the trees of the sword-blade forest which have to be climbed so that hell wraiths are pierced through and through. This particular aspect of hell is said to be the punishment which adulterers bring on themselves. Various murderers and torturers are impaled upon stakes while a steel-beaked bird rips out the entrails of former cock-fighters. Venerable Nagarjuna has some more verses upon these lower and most-miserable states:

"The criminal who has to bear

throughout a single day

The piercing of three hundred spears

as punishment for crime,

His pain can nowise be compared

to the least pain found in hell.

The pains of hell may still persist

a hundred crores of years --

Without respite, unbearable

So long the fruits of evil acts

do not exhaust the force --

So long continues life in hell."

-- L.K. 86-87

Jetsun Milarepa, the great sage and poet of Tibet, who had seen the heavens and hells and other states, once sung this verse:

"Fiends filled with cravings for pleasures

Murder even their parents and teachers,

Rob the Three Gems of their treasures,

Revile and falsely accuse the Precious Ones,

And condemn the Dhamma as untrue:

In the hell of unceasing torment

These evil-doers will be burned..."[9]

Those who now violate the peoples of Tibet and their Dhamma might well take note! This brief survey of the Five Bourns (pañcagati) may be concluded with a verse of exhortation from "The Letter of Kindheartedness":

"If your head or dress caught fire

in haste you would extinguish it,

Do likewise with desire --

which whirls the wheel or wandering-on

And is the root of suffering,

No better thing to do!"

-- L.K. 104

The Rim of the Wheel (Dependent Arising) [^]

The Twelve-linked Chain

Our description has now come to the Rim, or felly of the Wheel, which depicts the Twelve Links of Dependent Arising. It is these links which chain the entire universe of beings to re-becoming and to suffering.

It is a well-established tradition to explain this chain as referring to three lives (past, present and future). While the present is the only time which is real, it has been moulded in the past. It is in the present that we produce kamma of mind, speech and body, to bear fruit in the future. In the twelve nidanas or "links" around this wheel are set out the whole pattern of life and in it all questions relating to existence are answered. The teaching of Dependent Arising, central in our Dhamma-Vinaya, is not, however, for speculation but should be investigated and seen in one's own and others' lives, and finally it may be perceived in one's own heart where all the Truths of Dhamma become clear after practice. But people who do not practice Dhamma are called "upholders of the world"; they let this wheel whirl them round from unknowing to old-age and death. The Exalted Buddha urged us not to be "world upholders" but through Dhamma-practice to relinquish greed, aversion and delusion so that by the cessation of unknowing there comes to be a cessation of birth, old-age and death.

Now let us have a look at these twelve links in brief.

First Link: Unknowing (avijja)

This Pali word "avijja" is a negative term meaning "not knowing completely" but it does not mean "knowing nothing at all." This kind of unknowing is very special and not concerned with ordinary ways or subjects of knowledge, for here what one does not know are the Four Noble Truths, one does not see them clearly in one's own heart and one's own life. In past lives, we did not care to see dukkha (1), so we could not destroy the cause of dukkha (2) or craving which has impelled us to seek more and more lives, more and more pleasures. The cessation of dukkha (3) which perhaps could have been seen by us in past lives, was not realized, so we come to the present existence inevitably burdened with dukkha. And in the past we can hardly assume that we set our feet upon the practice-path leading to the cessation of dukkha (4) and we did not even discover Stream-entry. We are now paying for our own negligence in the past.

And this unknowing is not some kind of first cause in the past, for it dwells in our hearts now. But due to this unknowing, as we shall see, we have set in motion this wheel bringing round old age and death and all other sorts of dukkha. Those past "selves" in previous lives who are in the stream of my individual continuity did not check their craving and so could not cut at the root of unknowing. On the contrary they made kamma, some of the fruits of which in this present life I, as their causal resultant, am receiving.

The picture helps us to understand this: a blind old woman (avijja is of feminine gender) with a stick picks her way through a petrified forest strewn with bones. It is said that the original picture here should be an old blind she-camel led by a driver, the beast being one accustomed to long and weary journeys across inhospitable country, while its driver could be craving. Whichever simile is used, the beginninglessness and the darkness of unknowing are well suggested. We are the blind ones who have staggered from the past into the present -- to what sort of future?

Depending on the existence of unknowing in the heart there was volitional action, kamma or abhisankhara, made in those past lives.

Second Link: Volitions (sankhara)

Intentional actions have the latent power within them to bear fruit in the future -- either in a later part of the life in which they were performed, in the following life, or in some more distant life, but their potency is not lost with even the passing of aeons; and whenever the necessary conditions obtain that past kamma may bear fruit. Now, in past lives we have made kamma, and due to our ignorance of the Four Noble Truths we have been "world-upholders" and so making good and evil kamma we have ensured the continued experience of this world.

Beings like this, obstructed by unknowing in their hearts have been compared to a potter making pots: he makes successful and beautiful pottery (skillful kamma) and he is sometimes careless and his pots crack and break up from various flaws (unskillful kamma). And he gets his clay fairly well smeared over himself just as purity of heart is obscured by the mud of kamma. The simile of the potter is particularly apt because the word Sankhara means "forming," "shaping," and "compounding," and therefore it has often been rendered in English as "Formations."

Depending on the existence of these volitions produced in past lives, there arises the consciousness called "relinking" which becomes the basis of this present life.

Third Link: Consciousness (viññana)

This relinking consciousness may be of different qualities, according to the kamma upon which it depends. In the case of all those who read this, the consciousness "leaping" into a new birth at the time of conception, was a human relinking consciousness arising as a result of having practiced at least the Five Precepts, the basis of "humanness" in past lives. One should note that this relinking consciousness is a resultant, not something which can be controlled by will. If one has not made kamma suitable for becoming a human being, one cannot will, when the time of death comes round, "Now I shall become a man again!" The time for intentional action was when one had the opportunity to practice Dhamma. Although our relinking-consciousness in this birth is now behind us, it is now that we can practice Dhamma and make more sure of a favorable relinking consciousness in future -- that is, if we wish to go on living in Samsara.

This relinking-consciousness is the third constituent necessary for conception, for even though it is the mother's period and sperm is deposited in the womb, if there is no "being" desiring to take rebirth at that place and time there will be no fertilization of the ovum.

Appropriately, the picture shows a monkey, the consciousness leaping from one tree, the old life, to another tree. The old tree has died, while the one towards which it jumps is laden with fruits -- they may be the fruits of good or evil. The Tibetan picture shows a monkey devouring fruit, experiencing the fruits of deeds done in the past.

Dependent upon relinking-consciousness there is the arising of mind-body.

Fourth Link: Mind-body (Nama-rupa)

This is not a very accurate translation but gives the general meaning. There is more included in rupa that is usually thought of as body, while mind is a compound of feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. This mind and body is two interactive continuities in which there is nothing stable. Although in conventional speech we talk of "my mind" and "my body," implying that there is some sort of owner lurking in the background, the wise understand that laws govern the workings of both mental states and physical changes and mind cannot be ordered to be free of defilements, nor body told that it must not grow old, become sick and die.

But it is in the mind that a change can be wrought instead of drifting through life at the mercy of the inherent instability of mind and body. So in the illustration, mind is doing the work of punting the boat of psycho-physical states on the river of cravings, while body is the passive passenger. The Tibetan picture shows a coracle being rowed over swirling waters with three (? or four) other passengers, who doubtless represent the other groups or aggregates (khandha).

With the coming into existence of mind-body, there is the arising of the six sense-spheres.

Fifth Link: Six sense-spheres (salayatana)

A house with six windows is the usual symbol for this link (but the Tibetan shows a house with one (?) window). These six senses are eye, ear, nose, tongue, touch and mind, and these are the bases for the reception of the various sorts of information which each can gather in the presence of the correct conditions. This information falls under six headings corresponding to the six spheres: sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles and thoughts. Beyond these six spheres of sense and their corresponding six objective spheres, we know nothing. All our experience is limited by the senses and their objects with the mind counted as the sixth. The five outer senses collect data only in the present but mind, the sixth, where this information is collected and processed, ranges through the three times adding memories from the past and hopes and fears for the future, as well as thoughts of various kinds relating to the present. It may also add information about the spheres of existence which are beyond the range of the five outer senses, such as the various heavens, the ghosts and the hell-states. A mind developed through collectedness (samadhi) is able to perceive these worlds and their inhabitants.

The six sense-spheres existing, there is contact.

Sixth Link: Contact (phassa)

This means the contact between the six senses and the respective objects. For instance, when the necessary conditions are all fulfilled, there being an eye, a sight-object, light and the eye being functional and the person awake and turned toward the object, there is likely to be eye-contact, the striking of the object upon the sensitive eye-base. The same is true for each of the senses and their type of contact. The traditional symbol for this link shows a man and a woman embracing.

Where contact arises, feeling exists.

Seventh Link: Feeling (vedana)

When there have been various sorts of contact through the six senses, feelings arise which are the emotional response to those contacts. Feelings are of three sorts: pleasant, painful and neither pleasant nor painful. The first are welcome and are the basis for happiness, the second are unwelcome and are the basis for dukkha while the third are the neutral sort of feelings which we experience so often but hardly notice.

But all feelings are unstable and liable to change, for no mental state can continue in equilibrium. Even moments of the highest happiness whatever we consider this is, pass away and give place to different ones. So even happiness which is impermanent based on pleasant feelings is really dukkha, for how can the true unchanging happiness be found in the unstable? Thus the picture shows a man with his eyes pierced by arrows, a strong enough illustration of this.

When feelings arise, cravings are (usually) produced.

Eighth Link Craving (tanha)

Up to this point, the succession of events has been determined by past kamma. Craving, however, leads to the making of new kamma in the present and it is possible now, and only now, to practice Dhamma. What is needed here is mindfulness (sati), for without it no Dhamma at all can be practiced while one will be swept away by the force of past habits and let craving and unknowing increase themselves within one's heart. When one does have mindfulness one may and can know "this is pleasant feeling," "this is unpleasant feeling," "this is neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling" -- and such contemplation of feelings leads one to understand and beware of greed, aversion and delusion, which are respectively associated with the three feelings. With this knowledge one can break out of the Wheel of Birth and Death. But without this Dhamma-practice it is certain that feelings will lead on to more cravings and whirl one around this wheel full of dukkha. As Venerable Nagarjuna has said:

"Desires have only surface sweetness,

hardness within and bitterness --

deceptive as the kimpa-fruit.

Thus says the King of Conquerors.

Such links renounce -- they bind the world

Within samsara's prison grid.

If your head or dress caught fire

in haste you would extinguish it,

Do likewise with desire --

Which whirls the wheel of wandering-on

and is the root of suffering.

No better thing to do!"

-- L.K. 23, 104

In Sanskrit, the word trisna (tanha) means thirst, and by extension implies "thirst for experience." For this reason, craving is shown as a toper guzzling intoxicants and in my picture I have added three bottles -- craving for sensual sphere existence and the craving for the higher heavens of the Brahma-worlds which are either of subtle form, or formless.

Where the kamma of further craving is produced there arises Grasping.

Ninth Link: Grasping (upadana)

This is an intensification and diversification of craving which is directed to four ends: sensual pleasures, views which lead astray from Dhamma, external religious rites and vows, and attachment to the view of soul or self as being permanent. When these become strong in people they cannot even become interested in Dhamma, for their efforts are directed away from Dhamma and towards dukkha. The common reaction is to redouble efforts to find peace and happiness among the objects which are grasped at. Hence both pictures show a man reaching up to pick more fruit although his basket is full already.

Where this grasping is found there Becoming is to be seen.

Tenth Link: Becoming (bhava)

With hearts boiling with craving and grasping, people ensure for themselves more and more of various sorts of life, and pile up the fuel upon the fire of dukkha. The ordinary person, not knowing about dukkha, wants to stoke up the blaze, but the Buddhist way of doing things is to let the fires go out for want of fuel by stopping the process of craving and grasping and thus cutting off Unknowing at its root. If we want to stay in samsara we must be diligent and see that our becoming, which is happening all the time shaped by our kamma, is becoming in the right direction. This means becoming in the direction of purity and following the white path of Dhamma-practice. This will contribute to whatever we become, or do not become, at the end of this life when the pathways to the various realms stand open and we become according to our practice and to our death-consciousness.

Appropriately, Becoming is illustrated by a pregnant woman.

In the presence of Becoming there is arising in a new birth.

Eleventh Link: Birth (jati)

Birth, as one might expect, is shown as a mother in the process of childbirth, a painful business and a reminder of how dukkha cannot be avoided in any life. Whatever the future life is to be, if we are not able to bring the wheel to a stop in this life, certainly that future will arise conditioned by the kamma made in this life. But it is no use thinking that since there are going to be future births, one may as well put off Dhamma practice until then -- for it is not sure what those future births will be like. And when they come around, they are just the present moment as well. So no use waiting! Venerable Nagarjuna shows that it is better to extricate oneself:

"Where birth takes place, quite naturally

are fear, old age and misery,

disease, desire and death,

As well a mass of other ills.

When birth's no longer brought about

All the links are ever stopped."

-- L.K. 111

Naturally where there is Birth, is also Old-age and Death.

Twelfth Link: Old-age and death (jara-marana)

In future one is assured, given enough of Unknowing and Craving, of lives without end but also of deaths with end. The one appeals to greed but the other arouses aversion. One without the other is impossible. But this is the path of heedlessness. The Dhamma-path leads directly to Deathlessness, the going beyond birth and death, beyond all dukkha.

The Tibetan picture shows an old man carrying off a bundled-up corpse upon his back, taking it away to some charnel ground. My picture has an old man gazing at a coffin enclosing a corpse. We are well exhorted by the words of Acarya Nagarjuna:

"Do you therefore exert yourself:

At all times try to penetrate

Into the heart of these Four Truths;

For even those who dwell at home,

they will, by understanding them

ford the river of (mental) floods."

-- L.K. 115

This is a very brief outline of the workings of this wheel which we cling to for our own harm and the hurt of others. We are the makers of this wheel and the turners of this wheel, but if we wish it and work for it, we are the ones who can stop this wheel.

The Monster

Both pictures show the Wheel as being in the grip of a fearful monster. In my drawing the monster's name is engraved upon his crown so that people should not think of him as a common demon. He is no such thing, for his name is Impermanence and his crown shows his authority over all worlds whatever. He devours them and they are all, heavens and hells together, securely held in the grasp of his taloned hands. The crown upon his head is adorned with five skulls, representing the impermanence of the five groups or aggregates comprising the person. His eyes, ears, nose, and mouth have flames about them, an illustration of the Exalted One's Third Discourse in which He says: "The eye is afire..." and so on. Above the monster's two eyes, there is a third one meaning that while for the fool impermanence is his enemy, for the wise man it helps him to Enlightenment. Although the monster has adorned himself with earrings and the like he fails to look attractive -- in the same way, this world puts on an outer show of beauty puts its beauty fades when examined more carefully.

Below the painting of the wheel, some Tibetan examples show parts of a tiger-skin adorning the monster, a symbol of fearfulness. In my drawing I show the monster's tail which has no beginning, looping back and forth. In the same way, we have been born, lived and then died countless times in the whirl of samsara. Sometimes our deeds were mostly good and sometimes mostly bad, and we have reaped the fruit of it all.

Some other features

The whole wheel glows with heat and is surrounded by flames burning with the fires of greed, aversion and delusion as the Exalted One has repeated many times in His Discourses.

In the upper right corner of both pictures stands the Exalted Buddha shown crossed over to the Further Shore, meaning Nibbana. The Tibetan picture shows him pointing out the moon upon which is drawn a hare, the symbol of renunciation, the way to practice Dhamma, and the way out of this wheel.[10] In my picture, He indicates with his hand the nature of samsara and warns us to beware. He is adorned with a radiance about Him symbolizing the spiritual freedom and majestic wisdom won by Him which can be described in many ways but is finally beyond the limitations of everything known to us.

The Tibetan picture shows in the upper left, a drawing of Avalokitesvara,[11] the embodiment of compassion as the way and the goal for those who follow the bodhisattva-path. My picture has the Path of Dhamma of eight lotuses leading to the wheel of Dhamma. The eight lotuses are the eight factors of the Noble Path, the first two -- Right View, Right Attitude -- being the wisdom-section; the next three -- Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood -- being the morality section; and the last three -- Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Collectedness -- being the section of collectedness or meditation. The Wheel of Dhamma has at its center suññata, the Void, another name for the experience of Nibbana. Around its hub are the ten petals of a lotus, representing the ten perfecting qualities (parami) which are necessary for complete attainment: generosity, moral conduct, renunciation, wisdom, determination, energy, patience, truthfulness, loving-kindness and equanimity. Eight spokes radiate from the hub which stand for the practice by the Arahant, the one perfected, of the Eightfold Path when each factor, instead of being just right, becomes perfect. On the inside of the wheel's nave there are 37 jewels symbolizing the thirty-seven factors of Enlightenment, while the outer edge of the nave is adorned with four groups of three jewels showing the Four Noble Truths in each of the three ways wherein they were viewed by the Exalted Buddha when he discovered Enlightenment.[12]

Conclusion [^]

This picture teaches us and reminds us of many important features of the Dhamma as it was intended to by the teachers of old. Contemplating all its features frequently helps to give us true insight into the nature of Samsara. With its help and our own practice we come to see Dependent Arising in ourselves. When this has been done thoroughly all the riches of Dhamma will be available to us, not from books or discussions, nor from listening to others' explanations...

The Exalted Buddha has said:

"Whoever sees Dependent Arising, he sees Dhamma;

Whoever sees Dhamma, he sees Dependent Arising."

* * *

Anicca vata sankhara

uppada vayadammino

Uppajjitva nirujjhanti

tesam vupasamo sukho.

Conditions truly they are transient

With the nature to arise and cease

Having arisen, then they pass away

Their calming, cessation is happiness.

Notes [^]

1. See Wheel No. 34/35: "The Four Noble Truths." [Go back]

2. One of the eighteen branches of extinct Hinayana. [Go back]

3. the familiar Pali forms of names are used throughout. [Go back]

4. These have not been shown in the accompanying drawing and neither does modern Tibetan tradition represent them. They are, respectively the eastern western, northern and southern continents of the old Indian geography. [Go back]

5. In modern representations a cock is always shown. [Go back]

6. Translation by Ven. Pasadiko from the opening paragraphs of the Sahasodgata Avadana, Divyavadana 21, Mithila Edition, page 185 ff. [Go back]

7. Dasa-kusala-kammapatha. [Go back]

8. Dasa-puñña-kiriya-vatthu. [Go back]

9. See "Sixty Songs of Milarepa", Wheel, No. 95/97. [Go back]

10. Not included in the reproduction given here. [Go back]

11. Not included in the reproduction given here. [Go back]

12. See the Wheel No. 17: "Three Cardinal Discourses" p. 7f. [Go back]

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The Wheel of Samsara, drawn by Bhikkhu Khantipalo

Tibetan Wheel of Samsara

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Source: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel147.html