It vividly describes how we become trapped in a counterproductive maelstrom of suffering and how this process can be reversed, showing how Buddhists place themselves in an everchanging universe of cause and effect. In Tibet, this painting is at the doorway of practically every temple. Ĭontemporary scholar Jeffrey Hopkins states: So these images on the Wheel of Life are just to communicate to the general audience. One of the reasons why the Wheel of Life was painted outside the monasteries and on the walls (and was really encouraged even by the Buddha himself) was to teach this very profound Buddhist philosophy of life and perception to more simple-minded farmers or cowherds. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche states: The wheel of life is painted on the outside walls of nearly every Tibetan Buddhist temple in Tibet and India. An account of this story appears in the anthology of Buddhist narratives called the Divyāvadāna. Legend has it that the Buddha himself designed the first illustration of the wheel of life, and offered it as a gift to King Rudrāyaṇa. 5 English translations of the term bhavacakra.2.8 The Buddha pointing to the moon: the path to liberation.2.6 The figure holding the wheel: impermanence.2.4.3 A brief description of the six realms.2.4 Third layer: the six realms of samsara.(The images below are only a selection of examples). University of Washington Press, Seattle & London. Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples. For difficulty make an image of a man and woman pulling a camel that is hard to tame." For pain make of men and women suffering. For malady make an image of men and women weeping. For sadness make an image of men and women grieving. For the death branch make an image of a dead person on a bier. ![]() For sickness make make an image of men and women who are ill. For the old age branch make an image of old, decrepit men and women. For the birth branch make an image of a woman giving birth. For the becoming branch make an image of the great god Brahma. For the appropriation branch make an image of a man holding a bottle fetching water. For the desire branch make an image of a woman holding a child in her arms. For the feeling branch make an image of a man and woman experiencing pain and pleasure. For the contact segment make an image of men and women embracing. For the six sense fields branch make an image of the six sense organs. For the name-and-form branch make an image of people riding in a boat. For the consciousness branch make an image of a monkey. For the disposition branch make an image of a potter's wheel. ![]() For the ignorance branch make an image of a raksa. 'All around this you should then paint the Twelve Conditions and the signs of life and the extinction of life, which means ignorance, dispositions, and so on, up to old age and death. Source Text: Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Vibhanga: (translated from the Chinese version of the Sanskrit text) The twelve images are not always standardized and can often be interpreted differently by various artistic traditions and individual artists. Other examples can have the first link start anywhere in the circle providing that the twelve links follow consecutively in their traditional order. With the majority of Wheel of Life examples the first link is more often placed just after the 12:00 position or the 6:00 position of the circle. The first of the twelve links, ignorance is represented by a blind man walking with a stick. Old age and death – a corpse being carried Ignorance – a blind person with a walking stick (Chinese translation: Raksha demon)ĭispositions – a potter & a potter's wheel The Twelve Links, depending on the Sanskrit source literature, can also expand to sixteen or more links, as explained in different sutras or commentarial texts. The Tibetan version has some slight differences. They do not compare exactly with the translated text below which is from an early Chinese translation of a Sanskrit text of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Vibhanga. The twelve descriptive images below are the most common found in Himalayan and Tibetan art. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་) is the outermost ring or circle of the Wheel of Life, represented by twelve narrative scenes, sometimes framed by a cartouche or separated by solid lines. The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising (dvādaśāṅga-pratītyasamutpāda Tib.
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