Description

The Wheel of Life is held up to us as a mirror by Yama, the god of death, who sends to human beings the messengers of approaching old-age, sickness and death. This famous symbolic picture traditionally can be found at the entrances of Buddhist temples and monasteries. Often it is the guest monk who explain its significance to visitors.

The Six Realms are, beginning at the top, the heavenly realm where divine beings devas, enjoy a very long life of godlike blissful existence: nothing goes wrong; everything goes their way. It is said that their bodies and their clothes shine.

Moving clockwise, the next is the realm of the fighting demons, the asuras, who, despite being semi-divine, are in a constant state of envy, declaring war on heaven and the devas. This is because the tree that they share with the heavenly realm has its trunk and roots in the fighting demon realm, but the majority of the fruiting branches in the heavenly realm. Therefore the divine beings simply help themselves to the majority of the heavenly fruit, while the fighting demons can only look after the trunk and roots.

Next is the animal realm. In the West we either view animals sentimentally or see them as dangerous beasts. In the East the life of an animal is thought to be pitiful because they have to accept whatever is meted out to them, having no redress for their suffering. In the wild, very few animals live out their natural lifespan. They kill to eat and will be preyed upon by others. If a lion breaks a tooth and it becomes septic there is no dentist to go to. As the pain increases they can no longer eat and therefore may starve to death. If they are lucky another predator will kill them off; if not, they will suffer a miserable death. The animal state is a pitiful state of suffering.

Next come the hungry ghosts, pretas, who are recognizable by their pipette-like necks and huge distended bellies. Their efforts at feeding themselves are continually thwarted by their thin necks. They exist in a state of constant hunger and craving.

At the base section of the wheel are the miserable realms or hells. There are 16 hells in Buddhism, eight hot and eight cold. Here there is unspeakable suffering sometimes for very long periods of time.

The human realm completes the circle. Traditionally it is said that it is only from the human realm that liberation from the Wheel of Becoming is possible. In this realm are depicted all the important themes of human life – birth, the religious life, old age, sickness and death.