The Buddhist Wheel of Life

One of Buddha's foremost disciples was Maudgalyayana. He was said to be extremely adept at spiritual practices and had such mastery over psychic powers that he could penetrate into the soul of any individual and visualize all that was happening there and why.

With this ability to enter deeply into the lives of another it is not surprising that the insights expressed in his teachings gained a wide audience and universal acceptance. Buddha, noticing this, proposed that a picture should be made representing Maudgalyayana's teachings, so that his message could be made available to even those who did not have direct access to him. Thus was born the esoteric image known as 'The Wheel of Life.' This diagram serves as a powerful inspiration to spiritual aspirants and is painted to the left of all Tibetan monasteries, offering an opportunity to both monks and pilgrims alike, to look deeply into their own inner beings.

An amazing collection of contrasting imagery, each aspect of this composition is packed with rich symbolism and direct, hard-hitting metaphors. Essentially a construction made up of four concentric circles, it is an attempt to convey spiritual insights behind our 'physical existence' in purely visual terms.

The Buddhist view is that we humans exist in an unenlightened state. The goal of our earthly sojourn is to attain enlightenment and gain deliverance from the constant cycle of birth and re-birth which characterizes all sentient beings.

There are various reasons for the suffering our mortal forms have to entail. The Wheel of Life presents these very causes for our suffering through both gruesome and sublime imagery. But under no condition is it a pessimistic presentation, rather it is an optimistic affirmation that redemption is possible by recognizing the delusions that plague our ephemeral existence. The first step towards their elimination and replacement by positive virtues is the recognition of these ills. It is this very identification that the Buddhist Wheel helps us in attaining. By making visuals the primary mode of expression, it makes these realizations available to all, even the spiritually uninitiated.

The Wheel of Life, also known as the Wheel of Law, depicts the cyclical nature of life according to Buddhism. In this wall painting, the artist shows the animal which represents death holding the wheel. The three cardinal sins, depicted in symbolic form, make up the center of the wheel. The cock symbolizes passion, the pig stupidity, and the snake hatred. Surrounding the sins are those who fall prey to bad karma on the right, and those with good karma on the left. The six spheres of existence make up the next circle. The Wheel, like the Buddha’s search for truth, culminates in the outermost circle, which depicts the 12 links in the chain of causation.