BHAVA-CHAKRA

THE WHEEL OF LIFE: BHAVA-CHAKRA

Buddhist art is intended to inspire and inform practitioners. The Wheel of life (Sanskrit : bhava-chakra, Tibetan : srid pa’ikhor lo) painting is primarily a representation of the round rebirth and the various levels of sufferings within the round. It is traditionally placed outside the sanctuary of a Buddhist temple, in a place where a person entering a temple will see it. Thus the purpose of the Wheel of Life is to remind one of death and impermanence – that death is definite, the time of death is indefinite, and at the time of death nothing helps but religious practice. In this way the Buddhist is inspired to make effort at religious practice now while the opportunity is still present. Found almost universally in the Buddhist temples of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Mongolia, the earliest example of this painting that has been found is at the Ajanta caves, dating to perhaps as early as a century before Christ. It is a marvelously informative and evocative work of art.

The story of the Wheel of Life painting is that Buddha himself designed it. At the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha, one King Udayana made a present of a jeweled robe to King Bimbisara, who was unable to present to King Udayana a gift of equal value. King Bimbisara consulted with his friend the Buddha about what he could give in return and Buddha described to him a painting showing the round of rebirth that he could have painted and present to King Udayana. Buddha also gave him the following stanzas to put with the painting:

Undertaking this and leaving that,

Enter into the teaching of the Buddha.

Like an elephant in a thatch house,

Destroy the forces of the Lord of death.

Those who with thorough consciousness

Practice this disciplinary doctrine

Will forsake the wheel of birth,

Bringing suffering to an end.

It is said that when the King received the picture and studied it, he gained nirvana or the enlightment, which is freedom from the round of rebirth.

The painting shows the fierce Lord of death holding a large circular object subdivided into sections. The object is compared to a mirror, showing unenlightened beings the nature of life in the round of rebirth. The lord of Death is a symbol of impermanence and holds the upper part of the circle in his mouth to indicate that we live between the jaws of death, able to die in any moment.

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The Wheel Of Life

In the center of the “Mirror” are the rooster, the snake and the pig representing desire, hatred and ignorance – the three poisons that are the root causes of all suffering.

Each of the animals holds the tail of another in its mouth indicating that each of the poisons acts to assist and further the other, but the root of these is ignorance. The next circle out represents the virtuous (the left half of the circle) and non-virtuous (the right half of the circle) actions, which arise from the three poisons. As the figure indicate, virtuous actions lead one to the higher rebirths and non-virtuous lead one to the lower rebirths. These actions (karma) in turn give rise to the various levels of suffering in cyclic existence represented in the next circle out.

This circle is subdivided into five or six sections representing the six migrations or the six states of temporary rebirth to which a sentient being may migrate while in the round of rebirth. The three upper sections show the “happy” migrations for rebirth as a worldly god, demi-god or human and the three lower sections show the “sad” migrations for rebirth as an animal, hungry ghost or hell being. Whether “happy” or “sad”, the rebirth is temporary. As we are born into this life and eventually die out of it, so sentient beings are born into each of the migrations and eventually die out that life too. Life in cyclic existence is compared to a bee in a jar, for the bee may go to the top and to the bottom and all round but, wherever it goes, it is still in the jar. So there is the saying, “ there is no place where one has not been born”. Starting with the hells, let us look briefly at each of the six places where one migrates in the round of rebirth.

There are eighteen hells in the Buddhist cosmology – eight hot hells, eight cold hells, neighboring hells and trifling hells. There are different ways of painting the Wheel of Life, a condensed way which represent only a few of the many subdivisions of the migrations and an extensive way which sections off each of the six migrations and represents every variety of rebirth. The style represented here is the condensed version, only a few of the many types of hells are actually represented. These line drawings attempt to show hot hells and the cold hells, Yama, the Lord of Death, who is the figure holding the “mirror” of the round of rebirth rules over the limitless number of sentiment beings suffering in the hells, and his workers – who may be actual external beings or beings created by one’s own karma – assure constant torment for these pitiful beings. Hell beings suffer through the longest lives of all beings in the round of rebirth and endure the worst physical torment. However, unlike the Christian idea of hell, these beings do not suffer eternally, for all the states of rebirth are temporary. The main cause of being reborn in the hells is anger.

Also represented in the hell realm is a standing black Buddha. Again, there are different styles of painting the Wheel of Life. In one style, the Buddha is represented only outside of the round of rebirth, in the upper corner of the painting. This is meant to show that enlightenment is completely different from the round of rebirth. In the style represented here, the Buddha is represented not only outside the wheel of rebirth but also in each of the six migrations. In this case the Buddha is shown offering to the unenlightened beings in that migration what will help them most to counter the plight they are in. The hell beings suffer mainly from extreme hot and cold, so Buddha is shown holding in one hand an offering of ice for the hot hell beings and in the other hand an offering of warmth for the cold hell beings.

Somewhat more fortunate than the hell beings are the hungry ghosts, who suffer during long miserable lives mainly from hunger and thirst. Hungry ghost are obstructed from getting food and water by internal obstructions such as horribly malformed bodies, by external obstructions such as being born into a place that has no food or water or into a place where even if there is nourishment, there are kept from it by guards, or by both internal and external obstructions. The main cause of being born as a hungry ghost is an action of desire such as stealing or miserliness. Here the Buddha is red and if I have it right, is shown in the posture of giving, which would indicate that the Buddha is giving nourishment to the hungry ghosts.

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More fortunate than the hungry ghosts are the animals, who are traditionally divided by the Buddhist into animals scattered about the land and animals under the surface (as of the waters). Animals suffer especially from dullness and from having their bodies used for others purposes. The main cause of being reborn as an animal is an action of ignorance or dullness or by calling others by animal’s names. Here the Buddha is green and holds a text, indicating that the animals need learning.

More fortunate than the animals and any of the sentient beings in the “sad” migrations are we humans, represented in the upper-left part of the circle. One is born into a human life on the basis of a virtuous action. Here human are shown pursuing the householders life of a farmer, traveling on horseback, treating a patient, and practicing religion in the monastery. Humans suffer mainly from birth, aging, sickness and death. In the human realm, the Buddha is yellow and is shown religious life is the way out of the frights of cyclic existence.

More fortunate than humans are demi-gods. The gods and the demi-gods share their environment wit the animals. In their lands there grows a wish-granting tree. The roots and trunk of the tree is in the land of the demi-gods (in the far left of the section) and the branches and the fruit of the tree are in the land of the gods (in the top of the section). It is the fruit, which is able to grant one’s wishes, so the demi-gods get no benefit from this tree, which grows in their land. Thus, seeing the great benefits the gods have, the demi-gods are jealous of the gods and make war against them. Now the demi-gods are greatly outclassed militarily, and the gods defeat them in the battle. So the demi-gods suffer mainly from jealous of the gods and from making war with the gods. In the land of the demi-gods the Buddha is blue and holds a flaming sword, indicating that it is the sword of wisdom that is able to cut through all suffering and victory banner reminding the demi-gods that the ultimate victory is over ignorance and suffering.

The most fortunate beings in the round of rebirth are the gods, who live long, glorious lives enjoying ambrosia of the five colors- blue, yellow, white, red and green – and “sporting” with beautiful partners. Near the end of a god’s life for seven of their god days before passing away, a god sees clairvoyantly where he or she will take rebirth. Most likely this rebirth will be into one of the hells and seeing this, the god suffers the greatest mental suffering in the round of rebirth.

The general cause of being reborn into any of the “sad” migrations is a non-virtuous action and here I have linked the three “sad” migrations with the three poisons – hell to anger or hatred, hungry ghosts to desire, and animals to dullness or ignorance. One is reborn into the “happy” migrations on the basis of a virtuous action and here I have not linked these migrations – gods, demi-gods and humans – to particular types of virtuous actions such as generosity. Still, the general cause of a fortunate rebirth is a virtuous action and one may gain a higher or lower status within the happy migrations in dependence upon the strength of the action.

Within the round of rebirth, clearly the gods have the greatest fortune, for they live long, glorious lives relatively free of misery until the end. However, the most potent of the sentiment beings are humans, for we have what is called the “rank of action”. That is, what we do in our human lifetimes has greater effect. It is much less of a non-virtue for a lion to kill a human than it is for a human to kill another human. That is because we have greater choice. Our human lives are a good mixture of pleasure and misery. So, by the Buddhist way of thinking, we have a good opportunity for religious practice and enough difficulties to remind us of why we should practice. Clearly, suffering frequently serves to induce religious practice, but too much of a bad thing is just impossible.

Whether a sentient being performs a virtuous act, which is of the type that can impel a happy migration, or a non-virtuous act, which is of the type that can impel a sad migration, that act or karma is linked to ignorance, represented by the pig in the center of the painting. Ignorance is the power-source of cyclic existence and the source of all this abundant suffering. Of course, virtuous actions are better than non-virtuous actions and the results are better too, but both are linked to ignorance. This means mainly that one is ignorant of one’s own nature and implies also that one is ignorant of the nature of things other than oneself as well. Sentient beings cycle between the extremes of permanence and nihilism believing, on the one hand., that there is a permanent self that endures and, on the other hand, that there is no self at all. In either case, the sentient being never is right. Ignorance in the Buddhist context does not mean simply not knowing something but actively believing in the opposite of what is true. The idea is not that one goes through the day making many mistakes; rather one makes the same mistake all day long. Moreover, this assessment of the self is generalized to all other things. So on the basis of a mistaken view of one’s own nature, one is drawn into virtuous and non-virtuous actions misconceiving the nature of the object of one’s hatred, of one’s desire, of one’s generosity, of one’s ethics, and so on. In this way, both virtues and non-virtues are linked to ignorance.

The outer rim symbolizing the twelve links of dependent-arising indicates how the sources of suffering – actions and afflictive emotions – produce lives within cyclic existence.

The first of the series of twelve links of dependent- arising begins at about the two o’clock position with ignorance, which is here represented as an old man who is blind and walks with a cane. That the old man is blind indicates that ignorance is blind with regard to the causes of suffering and the causes of happiness, and that he walks with a cane indicates that ignorance does not have a valid foundation. Ignorance is the main link to be removed to break the chain.

The second link of dependent-arising is action, which is called compositional action because actions serve to compose or bring about pleasurable and painful effects. Action is symbolized by the potter.

The third link in the chain of dependent-arising is consciousness, represented by a monkey leaping from window to window in a house. Ignorance motivates the second link, action and when the action is completed, it imprints a potency on the consciousness. The image of the monkey is perhaps representative of a single consciousness moving from one portal of consciousness to another – the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousnesses.

The fourth link of dependent-arising is called “name and form” which refer to the mental and physical aggregates of the person who arises in a future lifetime in dependence on the action completed in link two and registered in potency form in link three. Name and form are represented by two people in a boat.

The fifth link of dependent – arising is the six sense spheres – the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental senses. These are represented by an empty house with several windows to “peer out”. The internal sense powers, along with the consciousnesses and the external objects such as color and shape are required for perception.

The sixth link is contact, depicted by a man and a woman kissing. “Contact” refers to the meeting or “kissing” of the sense object with the sense powers and the consciousnesses. This contact causes one to distinguish the object as pleasurable, unpleasurable or neutral.

This perception of an object as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral induces feeling, the seventh link, which is represented by a man with an arrow stuck in his eye. This is the mental factor that experiences pleasure and so on. The eye is very sensitive and even a small cut will cause great suffering, so here feeling is represented as very effective in that it drives us to have more of the pleasure or to avoid the pain.

The eight link is attachment, which is shown as a man drinking beer. Attachment increases desire, but does not supply satisfaction.

The ninth link is grasping, represented as a monkey grabbing for fruit. Like attachment, grasping is a type of desire. The difference is that grasping, grabbing at an object one desires, is stronger.

The tenth link of dependent-arising is existence, represented by a pregnant woman. “Existence” refers to a fully potentialized karma which will produce the next lifetime. It is the seed that has popped out at the end of one’s life and carries one through to the next life. Just as the pregnant woman is ready to give birth, so the karma is ready to give rise to the next lifetime.

The eleventh link is birth, depicted literally. The karma depicted as the child in the womb in the last link is now taking birth or becoming actualized.

The final link of the twelve is aging and death, again depicted literally.

Outside the wheel of rebirth (in the upper right corner), the Buddha is shown pointing to the moon, representing nirvana, indicating that there is a way out of the wheel of suffering. In Sanskrit this painting is called bhava-chakra and in Tibetan it is called srid pa’I khor lo, either of which may be more properly called “Wheel of Existence” or “Wheel of Possibilities”. It is obvious that the main part of the painting explains life in the round of rebirth; however, since the Buddha is shown pointing toward liberation – that is, life outside the round of rebirth, the painting does indeed show the wheel of life, not just life in cyclic existence.

Thus, the Wheel of life painting may be considered as a visual representation of the four noble truths, for it shows:

True Sufferings: the sufferings of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and so forth.

True Origins: the three poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance in the center.

True Cessations: the moon of liberation, and

True Paths: the Buddha pointing the way to the moon of liberation.

Buddha is revered as the one who showed the causes of suffering and the causes of happiness. That is, he showed the nature of life in the round of rebirth and the path leading to liberation from suffering and death. The wheel of Life expresses well what the Buddhist see as the possibilities for humans and all living beings.

NVC