The Wheel of The Existence

The Living Journal – The Wheel of the existence.

(For general introduction only)

Samsara is the whole round of existence, Samsara with its miseries, is the true cause of suffering. To Samsara belongs everything which proceeds from a chain of other causes and which is thus involved in Karma and delusion.

Its essential nature is misery; its function is to provide a basis for the spread of misery and by nature to attract miseries for the future.

Samsara is divided into three worlds:-

1] The world of the senses - Beings in these worlds enjoy external sensual pleasure.

2] The world of the form – Beings can not enjoy external sensual pleasures but with the capability enjoy the undisturbed pleasure of internal contemplation.

 

3] The world of the formless – Beings in these worlds, the objects of the five senses do not exist, nor the five sensual organs with which we enjoy. There is only a bare mind or consciousness that devoid of distractions and beings exists and dwells entirely in a state of equanimity.

Samsara may also be divided according to the nature of the beings it contains and by this system, known as the Wheel of life of the six realms. Buddhist cosmology typically identifies six realms of existence, The Wheel of six realms or the Karmic Destinations, which is known as the cyclic of existence. 

Cyclic of existence is beginingless which means that each being has lived countless lifetimes and as such, there is no being that has not been our mother or father at one existence or another. 

Buddhism therefore teaches that every being is in fact a kind mother being who has, in the past, shown great love, kindness and protection to each one of us and that we should in turn be ready to repay them with similar acts of kindness. 

This is a very important aspect of Buddhist practice that will help one to develop loving compassion and this is why the first precepts of Buddhism is refrain from KILLING.

The Law of the twelve stages of causes or dependent

The law is also known as the law of Dependant origination or the Wheel of Life and is a discourse on the process of birth and death. It deals with the causes of rebirth and suffering with the view of helping mankind to get rid of their ills of life. It is not an attempt to solve the riddle of an absolute origin of life. It merely explains the “simple happening of a state, dependent on its antecedent state.

Ignorance of the truth of suffering, its cause, its end and the way to its end, is the main cause that set the Wheel of the six realms in motion. The Buddha said; ignorance is the deep delusion wherein we here so long are circling round.

The twelve Causes and their interdependent relationship are as follows:-

1] Ignorance

2] Action

3] Consciousness

4] Form and existence

5] The senses

6] Contact –Love Making

7] Sensation

8] Craving

9] Grasping

10] Existence

11] Rebirth

12] Old age and death

The Wheel of the six realms

1] The God or The Devas realms.

2] The Asura the Demi–Gods or Titan realms. 

3] The Human realm.

4] The Animal realms

5] The Preta – gati or Hungry Ghost realms

6] The Hell realms.  

1] The God realms - Include beings in the realm of celestial form and celestial formless, and  are the happiest realm as those beings who dwell there are enjoying with great power, wealth and long life. They are enjoying with continual pleasure and sensual delight, mitigated only by the fact that they too must eventually grow old and die and pass on to the other states once their karmic forces end or die out. Those beings born into the god realms are mainly due to one having lived virtuously and generously towards others.

2] The Asura the Demi–God or Titan realms - Is populated by “jealous gods” who should be as happy as the celestial beings, but their minds are clouded with anger and envy over the better fortunes of the god realm. Take a closer look at the picture of the Wheel of the six realms, there is a tree growing from the realm of the Asura to the realms of the Gods.

This is a “wish-fulfilling” tree whose fruits and flowers can fulfill every desire which the Asura or the Demi-Gods they are unable to get hold of. This causes them great frustration, anger and jealousy and therefore constantly wage against the Gods and try to claim the fruits of their tree. 

However they are always defeated because the Gods are farmore powerful due to their karmic legacy. Despite being a heavenly realm the Asuras live in a great suffering due to the delusion of anger and jealousy. The male Asura suffering is further increased by being born with a monstrous looks while the female Asura are born exquisitely beautiful and the female Asura only yearn for the love of the handsome Gods and rejecting their own kind.

3] The Human realm - Is where we are, it is filled with the up and downs of life, and we should be grateful for this conditions to be around. These bring about the awareness of the bliss of happiness and the misery of suffering and therefore become the way causes that lead to a spiritual practice.

It is the most fortunate realm to take rebirth into the world where one is able to listen to the Dharma and practice it to attain enlightenment. In the God realms the Gods are far too happily engrossed with their pleasures to bother about further cultivation while the Asura realms are too much affected by anger, jealousy and dissatisfactions of their existence. 

The Human Realm is the only realm of the six from which beings may escape samsara. Enlightenment is at hand in the Human Realm, yet only a few open their eyes and sees it. Rebirth into the Human Realm is conditioned by passion, doubt and desire.

4] The Animal realms – Born due to the result of their willful ignorance and are therefore unable to derive any benefit from the Dharma. Animals live only by instinct and must face daily reality of searching for food or mate and killing or be killed

5] The Hungry Ghost realms – The living spirits born here due to there are associated with addiction, obsession and compulsion. Who are afflicted constantly with the miseries of hunger and thirst. These beings with huge, empty stomachs, but they have pinhole mouths, and their necks are so thin they cannot swallow any food or water.

6] The Hell realms – As the name suggests, the Hell realm is the most terrible of the Six Realms. Hell beings have a short fuse; everything makes them angry. And the only way hell beings deal with things that make them angry is through aggression, violence. There are many different regions of hell, and the living beings in each of them also vary in nature, accordingly to their past Karma. Hell living beings only await the exhaustion of their karma to end their indescribable sufferings.

In the center of the Wheel of the six realms is seeing there are Three Animals which signifies the three poisons or three root causes of the suffering existence as follows:-

1] The rooster represents the passionate desire and attachment.

2] The snake represents hatred, enmity and aversion.

3] The boar represents the darkness of ignorance,ego & delusion.

Buddha 

In the top right corner, Buddha is showing the way. He is outside the Wheel of the six realms and to demonstrate that Buddha has escaped the cycle of life and death. Buddha is pointing to the Yama and the Wheel to instruct his followers the true nature of existence. 

The above explanation of the Wheel of the six realms helps us to understand clearly that our existence and sufferings are the result of the cause and effect and conditions which are without beginning of birth, death and rebirth. This Wheel of the six realms is a unique and superb representation of Samsara, the world of birth and death, it included all kind of living beings exist are classified into six types.

Mara is the king of the death and demons

The frightening figure holding the wheel of life is held between the jaws of the King the Demons, The Mara or Yama. Yama is the Lord of Death or Monster of Impermanence. He has three eyes and wears a crown of skulls.

Who always attempts to rule the mind of mankind and holding all living beings in a state of delusion.  Yama symbolises the impermanence of everything. The beings, he holds are trapped in eternal suffering by their ignorance of the nature of the universe. Buddhism teaches that death is not the end and is not to be feared. 

* Footnote *

Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practice! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practice, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain and sure that bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.

Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods which, if they are practiced in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have the pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practice is not carried out to increase one’s own power, ego and benefit.

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the precious Buddha’s precious Dharma and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Nagarjuna's Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migrators from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of these pictures.

Pictures courtesy and credit to the rightful owners.