Wheel of Life

3 ROOT POISONS Hub of the wheel

The pig- symbolises ignorance: to live a deluded life, ignorant of the Buddhist teachings.

The snake symbolises hatred: hatred, anger and jealousy of ‘self’, others and environment- caused by ignorance and craving.

The cock symbolises greed: lust or craving – craving for or grasping at experiences perceived to be pleasurable. Feeding personal desires.

Three Root Poisons: hub of the Wheel of Samsara Unenlightened beings are under their power. Buddhists see them as the starting point of all human problems. Together they ‘power’ the wheel of conditioned existence, keeping it turning and maintaining its suffering.

Continue endlessly, chasing each other, eating each other or vomiting each other up. Three poisons or fires initiate each other eg. Ignorance feeds desire, desire produces anger / frustration / hatred. Only by finding our way out of these are we going to stop the wheel and end Samsara.

Light & Dark Path Rim of the wheel On the left side of the rim is a White Path or Path of Bliss Represents good existence and how sentient beings may move upward to the Godly Realms The other side is the Dark Path which represents evil and how sentient beings, powered by the Three Root Poisons, may move downward to the Hellish Realms.

6 REALMS RE-BIRTH

6 Realms In the Buddhist viewpoint, there are 6 different realms we can be reborn into. Beings in each of these states has different degrees of happiness and suffering. These realms are namely: The Upper Realms Gods Humans Demi-Gods The Lower Realms Hungry Ghosts Animals Hell Beings

These Realms represents 6 different states of existence. Though some cannot be readily seen, they can be experienced. These 6 realms also represent 6 different states of mind a person might continually go through.

It is important to note that in Buddhism, gods are not beings that control or intervene in our daily lives. Rather, they are beings who experience a great deal of happiness as life goes on smoothly for a long time with absence of general suffering. However, this state is only temporal. We all, at one time or other, have had such an experience. When "everything" goes our way, as we wish, we are experiencing a state very similar to the gods. Gods

Demi-Gods (Asuras) Jealous gods These are beings who are constantly in an aggressive or competitive state of mind. They have great wealth, yet they are always reaching out, striving for more. In our modern world many of us are not unlike them. We live a generally high standard of life. Yet, we are constantly seeking and reaching out for more endlessly. 

In this state we experience a mix of happiness and suffering. It is also in this state that we are able to attain Buddhahood. Thus a Buddhist would strive not to be born as a god but as a human, as it is as a human that we are most able to best practice the Dharma. Human Beings

Animals The most powerful force acting on animals is ignorance. They are guided mainly by instincts where the preoccupying thoughts are food, sex and material comfort. Many of us have had experiences when craving for food or sex is so strong that we do things that we might regret later. A person who is too preoccupied by these thoughts is thus somewhat bestial or animal in nature. Animals

Hungry Ghosts In the ghost realm, beings are in a state of neurotic desire, and not having them fulfilled. They are always filled with great hunger or thirst. We have often seen people in less fortunate nations in great hunger due to drought or war. Their living is not unlike beings in the ghost realm. Closer to home, many people experience neurotic craving for relationships and cause great pain to both parties.

Hell Beings These beings, of all the realms, are the ones suffering from the most pain. These beings suffer from constant acute physical and mental pain. These descriptions fit the details of the ways in which many prisoners-of-war have been tortured.

Conditionality or Dependent Origination

Conditionality or Dependent Origination ‘If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from the stopping of this, that is stopped.’ Quotation from Dhammapada

Just as a seedling can only grow according to the conditions of soil, water and sunlight it is nurtured in, every living being is also limited or nourished by the conditions of their life and past lives. The twelve elements of dependent origination are like the soil in which the seed of the next life is planted and therefore determine the nature of that incarnation Our habits in this life and previous lives can become our characters in future lives, with good and bad qualities. This is why awareness, meditation and reflection are critical in order to build on wisdom gained or ignorance abandoned

Basic Principle Teaches: everything comes into being and is maintained by a complex web of conditions everything is part of the network of conditions maintaining something else nothing exists completely independent of anything else everything ceases when the conditions that maintain it cease the whole of existence is a ceaseless process of flux and change, cause & effect conditionality applies on all levels of existence from the physical environment to the human mind

'Past Life', 'Current Life' 'Future Life‘ Each symbol represents a stage in three successive cycles of conditioning (which the twelve links are divided up into). These three cycles are usually understood as: 'Past Life', 'Current Life' 'Future Life‘ Generally the twelve links are divided up and interpreted as shown in the image

Past Life: the first five pictures represent the way in which past ignorance has led to the current situation Blind man : Ignorance . The blind man doesn’t see ahead just as people in samsara don’t. After death (previous picture) we are reborn without understanding of our situation.

Potter making pots: Karmic formations Potter making pots: Karmic formations. We make our karma just as a potter makes pots. Due to our ignorance we make continuing choices based on greed and hatred, building up future effects that keep us in samsara.

Monkey : Sentience or consciousness Monkey : Sentience or consciousness. The monkey moves restlessly from tree to tree just as our mind moves between objects. In dependence on our karmic formations or choices we build up a habitual awareness moving from object to object.

Four people in a boat : The five skandhas Four people in a boat : The five skandhas. The boat here represents the body and the passengers sensations, perceptions, karmic formations and consciousness: In dependence on our karmic formations and consciousness we seek out a new body with further sensations and perceptions

House with five windows and one door: The six senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and mind. Each window or door represents a sense. In dependence on the five skandhas arise the six senses, which all interact with each other.

Present life: once the conditions for new craving have been set up by past actions, the next four pictures show how this results in karmic formations Couple embracing : Contact/Sensation. The couple are having particularly strong sensations in their embrace! Having five senses sets up the conditions for sensations of new things.

Man with arrow in his eye : Feeling Man with arrow in his eye : Feeling. This man is having a particularly strong (and painful) feeling! Sensations set up the conditions for pleasant, painful or neutral feelings.

Woman offering man a drink : Craving (tanha) Woman offering man a drink : Craving (tanha). The man craves the drink, and perhaps the woman as well. Tanha literally means 'thirst'. This is the point of control and responsibility, where we respond to a pleasant feeling with craving or a painful one with hatred

Woman picking fruit : Grasping : the woman reaches out to grasp the tempting fruit and collect it. Once we have given way to craving, this is likely to lead to the physical action of taking or using the thing we crave.

Future life: the final three pictures show the effects of karmic activity in the form of death and rebirth Pregnant woman : Becoming: in traditional Buddhist belief rebirth begins at fertilisation following entry of the karmic formations. Grasping leads to rebirth as we continue the habit of relating to the things we want. We grasp at a new rebirth after death.

Woman giving birth : Birth :Re-becoming (rebirth into one’s mother’s womb) leads inevitably to birth into the world again. Corpse : Death Birth leads inevitably to the further suffering associated with death, and thus back to ignorance.

As you will see, each of the three 'lives' is a complete craving-karma cycle in itself, so each could be taken by itself as a complete representation of samsara. However, the twelve links together show the relationship between different ways of seeing the same basic cycle:

Firstly as maintaining the interrelationship between the different parts of our assumed selves (past life) Secondly in close focus, as the cycle of sensation-feeling-craving-grasping which could happen every few seconds (present life) Thirdly panning out into the biggest perspective, as a cycle of births and deaths (future life). There are various different ways of explaining the twelve links used by different Buddhist teachers, but one way might be to see them as different TV monitors linked to cameras trained on the same thing from different angles.

Dependant Orgination and karma The twelve causal links give the impression that the whole of our experience is formed by karma. For example in the 'past life' phase, consciousness, the six senses and the five skandhas all arise in dependence on karmic formations (the potter).

FUTURE LIFE: EFFECTS OF KARMIC ACTIVITY PAST LIFE: of IGNORANCE PRESENT LIFE: NEW CRAVINGS

2nd Noble Truth Cause of Suffering Tanha 2nd Noble Truth Cause of Suffering

1st NOBLE TRUTH Suffering (Dukkha) is a fact of life There are four unavoidable physical sufferings; birth, old age, sickness and death. There are also three forms of mental suffering; separation from the people we love; contact with people we dislike and frustration of desires Happiness is real and comes in many ways, but happiness does not last forever and does not stop suffering. Buddhists believe that the way to end suffering is to first accept the fact that suffering is actually a fact of life .

Buddha found the causes of suffering: CRAVING, DESIRE & IGNORANCE 2nd NOBLE TRUTH Buddha learnt that suffering is part of life Can’t find an end to suffering unless find what causes it. Buddha found the causes of suffering: CRAVING, DESIRE & IGNORANCE The power of these cause all suffering Three Root Poisons are all Tanha

TANHA/CRAVING What are the things we crave? Food, entertainment, new things, popularity, money, beauty, holidays, eternal life, non-being (oblivion) etc.. Can be explained as the strong, selfish desires people have for pleasing their senses and experiences Anything that stimulates our senses or our feelings can lead to craving. People suffer with their craving for the pleasures of the senses and become unsatisfied and disappointed until they can replace their cravings with new ones.

We attempt to grasp at the things we enjoy, We to try to own them – make them permanent (ignorance of anicca) We try to stop them from changing We want more and more of them Grasping shows that people feel a kind of inner emptiness and want to fill it The more they grasp, the more they suffer Dukkha caused by ignorance of anicca, caused by tanha Desire is the fuel that keeps the wheel of samsara turning (3 root poisons)

I’ll be happy once I get ... I’d be happy if only…

Ignorance Avijja

Tree of Craving Craving is like a great tree with many branches. There are branches of greed, bad thoughts and of anger. The fruit of the tree of craving is suffering but how does the tree of craving grow? Where can we find it? The answer, says the Buddha, is that the tree of craving has its roots in ignorance. It grows out of ignorance, and its seeds fall and flourish whenever they find ignorance

What is ignorance? Real ignorance is not just being uneducated, or not knowing many things. Buddhists see ignorance as the inability to see the truth about things, to see things as they really are. This ability to see the truth is not a question of either eyesight or education. Buddhists believe that there are many truths about the world that people are ignorant of, because of the limits of their understanding.

TREE of CRAVING Dukkha suffering Bad thoughts Craving Anger greed desires Anger hatred Roots of IGNORANCE