| US Military Jewelry -- > Genuine Issue US Military Pendant Buddhist Wheel of Life | ||||
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The Bhavacakra is sometimes displayed with five sections, but the more recent and more common form has six sections. The areas between the six spokes represent the six forms of unenlightened existence. Names of the Bhavacakra The Bhavacakra is also called: Wheel of life The Six-section Bhavacakra The diagram of the Bhavacakra has six sections (or sometimes five, as described in more detail below). Background The Bhavacakra is represented as being held by the jaws, hands, and feet of a fearsome figure who turns the wheel. The exact identity of the figure varies. A common choice for the figure is Yama, the god of death. There is always a figure or symbol in the upper left and the upper right. The exact figure or symbol varies; common examples include the moon, a buddha, or a bodhisattva. In the picture of the Tibetan Bhavacakra in Sera, Lhasa the clouds take the shapes of certain Buddhist symbols. Outer rim The outer rim of the wheel is divided into twelve sections and given such names as the Twelve Interdependent Causes and Effects or the Twelve Links of Causality. Ignorance is the first of the 12 causes and conditions, both of our rebirth and of maturing any karma within our dependent existence. Different causes can overlap in different stages and even mature in next existences - lives. Yet the turning of the wheel goes onward. The twelve causal links are: (1) ignorance; (2) volitional action or conditioning; (3) consciousness; (4) name and form; (5) six sensory organs (i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind); (6) contact or touch; (7) sensation; (8) desire, craving, thirst; (9) grasping; (10) becoming or existence; (11) birth; (12) decay and death. Six Worlds The wheel is divided into six sections which represent the Six realms (or Worlds) of Existence. These Six Worlds are: The World of Devas or Gods The World of Devas is always at the very top of the wheel. The World of Asuras and the World of Humans are always in the top half of the wheel, bordering the World of Devas on opposite sides, but which of the two is on the left and which is on the right varies (leading to two different arrangements of the wheel). The World of Animals and the World of Hungry Ghosts is always in the bottom half of the wheel, with the World of Animals bordering the World of Humans and the World of Hungry Ghosts bordering the World of Asuras. Between the World of Animals and the World of Hungry Ghosts, at the very bottom of the wheel, is the World of Hell. Sometimes, the wheel is represented as only having five sections because the World of the Devas and the World of the Asuras are combined into a single world. In Buddhist representations of the wheel, within each of the Six Realms, there is always at least one buddha or bodhisattva depicted, trying to help sentient beings find their way to nirvana (ibid). Hub The rim of the hub has a clear binary demarcation of black and white. An exoteric exegesis holds that one side is the White Path or Path of Bliss and represents how sentient beings may move upward to the Godly Realms; the other side is the Dark Path which represents how sentient beings may move downward to the Hellish Realms. A more esoteric exegesis is that it represents the Right-handed Path and the Left-handed Path of Tantra, not in opposition but in unity. In the hub, the center of the wheel, the Three Poisons (Sanskrit: mula-klesa) are sometimes personified as the boar, serpent and fowl or iconographically by the gankyil; delusion, hatred and greed respectively. The Three Poisons are turning in a 'Wheel of Woe', each consuming and energised by the poison affronting them and being consumed by that which they affront in turn (each of the Poisons has one of the other Poisons in its mouth). Alternatively, they are the 'evils' which are responsible for the trapping of sentient beings within the Six Realms. Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer a path that is claimed to end suffering. It is said by some to be a body of philosophies influenced by the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as Gautama Buddha. It is said by others to be a set of teachings to guide one to directly experiencing reality. Many scholars say that there is not one Buddhism but many Buddhisms, and the latest edition of one textbook is retitled Buddhist Religions.[5] Buddhism is also known as Buddha Dharma or Dhamma, which means roughly the "teachings of the Awakened One" in Sanskrit and Pali, languages of ancient Buddhist texts. Buddhism began around the 5th century BCE in India with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly referred to as "the Buddha", which means "awakened one" in Sanskrit. History
and origins Gautama, whose personal name according to later sources was Siddhartha, was born in the city of Lumbini[6] and was raised in Kapilavastu. The traditional story of his life is as follows; little of this can be regarded as established historical fact. Born a prince, his father, King Suddhodana, was said to have been visited by a wise man shortly after Siddhartha was born. The wise man said that Siddhartha would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a holy man (Sadhu). Determined to make Siddhartha a king, the father tried to shield his son from the unpleasant realities of daily life. Despite his father's efforts, at the age of 29, he discovered the suffering of his people, first through an encounter with an elderly man. On subsequent trips outside the palace, he encountered various sufferings such as a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and a monk or an ascetic. These are often termed 'The Four Sights.' Gautama was deeply depressed by these four sights and sought to overcome old age, illness, and death by living the life of an ascetic. Gautama escaped his palace, leaving behind this royal life to become a mendicant. For a time on his spiritual quest, Buddha "experimented with extreme asceticism, which at that time was seen as a powerful spiritual practice...such as fasting, holding the breath, and exposure of the body to pain...he found, however, that these ascetic practices brought no genuine spiritual benefits and in fact, being based on self-hatred, that they were counterproductive." After abandoning asceticism and concentrating instead upon meditation and, according to some sources, Anapanasati (awareness of breathing in and out), Gautama is said to have discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way—a path of moderation that lies mid-way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. He accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village girl and then, sitting under a pipal tree or Sacred fig (Ficus religiosa), also known as the Bodhi tree, in Bodh Gaya, he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. His five companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After 49 days meditating, at the age of 35, he attained bodhi, also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West. After his attainment of bodhi he was known as Buddha or Gautama Buddha and spent the rest of his life teaching his insights (Dharma). According to scholars, he lived around the fifth century BCE, but his more exact birth date is open to debate. He died at the age of 80 in Kushinagara (Pali Kusinara) (India). |
Wheel of Life