I'm really stuck on this Wheel of Life. I find it absolutely fascinating and amazing that it almost so perfectly describes the human experience.
I keep thinking about it because I've already learnt so much from it and situations continually arise in which I can self-reflect and use the Wheel to help me kind of self-analyse what is going on.
Wikipedia actually (as usual) has a nice summary (search Wheel of Life and it will take you to "Bhavacakra which is the real name for it).
So someone asked me the other day how I got into buddhism. I'm not sure. I think I really started thinking about it in first year uni when we got taught about mind-body connectedness and we were given an example of a mouse entering a room full of people and how all the different people might react differently to the mouse. The mouse is the same mouse, but our perception creates our reality. From understanding this concept I was able to understand the Four Noble Truths (which I have blogged about in a previous post). But basically it's about finding happiness by dealing with your own inner perceptions, not the outside world.
Then, I had a question about karma. I kind of intuitively knew karma was real. I mean, whenever I've done something good to someone or been nice to them I've always felt better and then seemed to have people be nice to me too. Then I thought a lot about Newtons Third Law, which to summarise, that all actions have equal and opposite reactions. Therefore, if I'm putting positive actions and words out into the universe, I therefore must get positive actions and words back to me. But that's a little difficult to prove outside of physics. And some people have karma from past lives they have to deal with first. This is why you might feel you have to work a lot harder to begin with in life. All I know is the more I show kindness and generosity to people, the more I seem to get it back in return.
Then, I had a big question mark about reincarnation. Seriously? I used to be a cat? Or Joan of Arc? Then I read somewhere that reincarnation can occur in your current life. I explain it like this to my girlfriends: "You know how you seem to date the same guy over and over again?" That's reincarnation. You haven't learnt how to deal with your attachment to assholes, and that the nice guy is the one you should go for. This is the reincarnation of the lesson in life you need to learn before you can move on. It's obviously not just limited to dating. It's also in your career progression, dealing with personalities, dealing with money, etc etc.
And somehow, over time, I've come to accept that life reincarnation is possible. If I think back I think that started to happen as I started to practice meditation. And by "practice" I mean "put into practice" rather than "try hard to learn how to do it". Like enlightenment, meditation happens when you stop trying and start simply being. But that's another lesson. When I first started meditating I felt a connectedness to the universe. When all my thoughts, fears, and worries settled back down into the background, the "mad monkey" (which is what they call the constant and continual chatter in your mind) hushes for a second or two, you honestly can't help but feel connected to the universe. Like the soul feels strong again, and the soul feels connected without time or space barriers. This is how I really knew the soul existed.
Incidentally, I've been reading Stephen Hawkins The Universe in a Nutshell recently and he talks about time perhaps having no dimensions. Being infinite. Like space. But, again, I think that is for another conversation or this post will become it's own book.
Then, I asked on this recent trip, "What about the problem that 90% of all the humans that have ever lived are living now"? Where do all the souls come from? Well, I got explained by my Bhutanese guide that we might have been a tree or just a seed. We don't know. But we were and always have been part of this universe and we will be yet again reborn into samsara (this is the sanskrit word for the cycle of rebirth, which, is not ideal!)
So, samsara. Samsara is what is depicted in The Wheel of Life in a symbol form. Which I like, because I believe I am introverted and I therefore find pictures really helpful as my mind thinks in pictures. I was interested to read that historically they think Buddha himself drew the first Wheel to help explain ordinary people understand his teachings. I'm ordinary I guess. And further on in Wikipedia it says it was put on temple walls to help teach "more simple-minded farmers and cowherds"! Well, I wont be too insulted. I happen to like farmers.
Anyway, where was I ......? Here's what Wikipedia says:
So, in my own journey of understanding things, I get the "hub" of ignorance, attachment and aversions. In fact, I think its a lovely neat summary, rather than all the other twelve deadly sins and the like. Everything comes from ignorance, attachment, and aversion. And, in fact, attachment and aversion are due to ignorance and vice-versa.
Karma - ok I think we accept that now.
The six realms of samsara (or segments as I described in my last Wheel of Life post) are interesting. Very interesting indeed. Especially the jealous, lucky, and greedy realms. They call these realms the demon, god, and hungry ghost realms, but I think my translation is a bit more accurate for everyday English. So it's interesting that the lucky realm is the most "comfortable" life but it's not the way to enlightenment. The "human" realm is, which I thought previously (as I wrote in my last Wheel post) that is was the enlightened segment, but actually it's the human realm where one can work towards enlightenment. This is better than the :lucky" realm because people in "lucky" are so preoccupied with their comfortable life and defending themselves from the jealous realm, that they forget to practice the path to enlightenment. And according to The Buddhist Society, these people are in serious risk of being reborn not as a human, but as a lesser being such as an animal where it will take a very long time to work up enough karma to get back up.
So, yes, the realms are transient, day-to-day, minute-to-minute depending where in your life you currently are. And the Wheel, held in the mouth of death or "impermanence" is a mirror to remind us humans what it's all about, the bigger picture, and not to get distracted for too long.
I have thinking about this Wheel a lot. About my jealousy towards the privileged people that got to go to a top school, got into med school straight away, and haven't had to work as hard as I have to get to the same place. And then I have been thinking today a lot about the current Occupy Wall Street movement as there is an Occupy Melbourne movement gearing up. Are we in the jealous realm? We did, afterall, help plant those seeds in which those big Fat Cats now eat the fruit. And, are we also in the lucky realm in Australia, the top 0.5% of the wealthiest people on the planet? Have we forgotten? Are we preoccupied? Or are we the "hungry ghosts" that just want more and more? Is one flat-screen tv per household no longer satisfying?
Many questions. But the main thing is, when I feel jealousy or hatred towards the lucky people, I know where I'm coming from. I'm coming from jealousy realm. And that is born out of either ignorance, attachment or aversion.
And finally, the outer circle. The twelve links of dependant origination. The "human activities" I think I described it as, as that's what it kind of looks like. Well, I have just learnt today that they are actually:
Ok I think this concludes today's lesson. I'm teaching myself, rather than trying to preach so I hop ethis doesn't annoy anyone too much.
Just part of my "about stuff' in which this blog is supposed to be about. My life and stuff.
Now to cease avoiding this friggin essay.....
I keep thinking about it because I've already learnt so much from it and situations continually arise in which I can self-reflect and use the Wheel to help me kind of self-analyse what is going on.
Wikipedia actually (as usual) has a nice summary (search Wheel of Life and it will take you to "Bhavacakra which is the real name for it).
So someone asked me the other day how I got into buddhism. I'm not sure. I think I really started thinking about it in first year uni when we got taught about mind-body connectedness and we were given an example of a mouse entering a room full of people and how all the different people might react differently to the mouse. The mouse is the same mouse, but our perception creates our reality. From understanding this concept I was able to understand the Four Noble Truths (which I have blogged about in a previous post). But basically it's about finding happiness by dealing with your own inner perceptions, not the outside world.
Then, I had a question about karma. I kind of intuitively knew karma was real. I mean, whenever I've done something good to someone or been nice to them I've always felt better and then seemed to have people be nice to me too. Then I thought a lot about Newtons Third Law, which to summarise, that all actions have equal and opposite reactions. Therefore, if I'm putting positive actions and words out into the universe, I therefore must get positive actions and words back to me. But that's a little difficult to prove outside of physics. And some people have karma from past lives they have to deal with first. This is why you might feel you have to work a lot harder to begin with in life. All I know is the more I show kindness and generosity to people, the more I seem to get it back in return.
Then, I had a big question mark about reincarnation. Seriously? I used to be a cat? Or Joan of Arc? Then I read somewhere that reincarnation can occur in your current life. I explain it like this to my girlfriends: "You know how you seem to date the same guy over and over again?" That's reincarnation. You haven't learnt how to deal with your attachment to assholes, and that the nice guy is the one you should go for. This is the reincarnation of the lesson in life you need to learn before you can move on. It's obviously not just limited to dating. It's also in your career progression, dealing with personalities, dealing with money, etc etc.
And somehow, over time, I've come to accept that life reincarnation is possible. If I think back I think that started to happen as I started to practice meditation. And by "practice" I mean "put into practice" rather than "try hard to learn how to do it". Like enlightenment, meditation happens when you stop trying and start simply being. But that's another lesson. When I first started meditating I felt a connectedness to the universe. When all my thoughts, fears, and worries settled back down into the background, the "mad monkey" (which is what they call the constant and continual chatter in your mind) hushes for a second or two, you honestly can't help but feel connected to the universe. Like the soul feels strong again, and the soul feels connected without time or space barriers. This is how I really knew the soul existed.
Incidentally, I've been reading Stephen Hawkins The Universe in a Nutshell recently and he talks about time perhaps having no dimensions. Being infinite. Like space. But, again, I think that is for another conversation or this post will become it's own book.
Then, I asked on this recent trip, "What about the problem that 90% of all the humans that have ever lived are living now"? Where do all the souls come from? Well, I got explained by my Bhutanese guide that we might have been a tree or just a seed. We don't know. But we were and always have been part of this universe and we will be yet again reborn into samsara (this is the sanskrit word for the cycle of rebirth, which, is not ideal!)
So, samsara. Samsara is what is depicted in The Wheel of Life in a symbol form. Which I like, because I believe I am introverted and I therefore find pictures really helpful as my mind thinks in pictures. I was interested to read that historically they think Buddha himself drew the first Wheel to help explain ordinary people understand his teachings. I'm ordinary I guess. And further on in Wikipedia it says it was put on temple walls to help teach "more simple-minded farmers and cowherds"! Well, I wont be too insulted. I happen to like farmers.
Anyway, where was I ......? Here's what Wikipedia says:
The meanings of the main parts of the diagram are:
- The images in the hub of the wheel represents the three poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion.
- The second layer represents karma.
- The third layer represents the six realms of samsara.
- The fourth layer represents the twelve links of dependent origination.
- The fierce figure holding the wheel represents impermanence.
- The moon above the wheel (top left in the image at right) represents liberation from samsara or cyclic existence.
- The Buddha pointing to the moon (top right in the image at right) indicates that liberation is possible.
So, in my own journey of understanding things, I get the "hub" of ignorance, attachment and aversions. In fact, I think its a lovely neat summary, rather than all the other twelve deadly sins and the like. Everything comes from ignorance, attachment, and aversion. And, in fact, attachment and aversion are due to ignorance and vice-versa.
Karma - ok I think we accept that now.
The six realms of samsara (or segments as I described in my last Wheel of Life post) are interesting. Very interesting indeed. Especially the jealous, lucky, and greedy realms. They call these realms the demon, god, and hungry ghost realms, but I think my translation is a bit more accurate for everyday English. So it's interesting that the lucky realm is the most "comfortable" life but it's not the way to enlightenment. The "human" realm is, which I thought previously (as I wrote in my last Wheel post) that is was the enlightened segment, but actually it's the human realm where one can work towards enlightenment. This is better than the :lucky" realm because people in "lucky" are so preoccupied with their comfortable life and defending themselves from the jealous realm, that they forget to practice the path to enlightenment. And according to The Buddhist Society, these people are in serious risk of being reborn not as a human, but as a lesser being such as an animal where it will take a very long time to work up enough karma to get back up.
So, yes, the realms are transient, day-to-day, minute-to-minute depending where in your life you currently are. And the Wheel, held in the mouth of death or "impermanence" is a mirror to remind us humans what it's all about, the bigger picture, and not to get distracted for too long.
I have thinking about this Wheel a lot. About my jealousy towards the privileged people that got to go to a top school, got into med school straight away, and haven't had to work as hard as I have to get to the same place. And then I have been thinking today a lot about the current Occupy Wall Street movement as there is an Occupy Melbourne movement gearing up. Are we in the jealous realm? We did, afterall, help plant those seeds in which those big Fat Cats now eat the fruit. And, are we also in the lucky realm in Australia, the top 0.5% of the wealthiest people on the planet? Have we forgotten? Are we preoccupied? Or are we the "hungry ghosts" that just want more and more? Is one flat-screen tv per household no longer satisfying?
Many questions. But the main thing is, when I feel jealousy or hatred towards the lucky people, I know where I'm coming from. I'm coming from jealousy realm. And that is born out of either ignorance, attachment or aversion.
And finally, the outer circle. The twelve links of dependant origination. The "human activities" I think I described it as, as that's what it kind of looks like. Well, I have just learnt today that they are actually:
- Lack of knowledge
- Construction volitional activity (I think this is work or crafting stuff)
- Consciousness
- Name and form (I think this means physical being)
- Contact (ie with other humans)
- The six senses (the mind gets its own sense)
- Pain
- Thirst
- Grasping
- Coming to be (this is the coupe having sex, ie conception)
- Being born
- Old age and death
These twelve sections are part of what makes the wheel go round, but I have to study this outer layer a bit more in depth before I can fully understand its pertinence. I believe that the six realms are internal causes of suffering, but the outer twelve are external causes. This is why I thought they were simple activities of daily living. Mmmm so much more to learn.
Ok I think this concludes today's lesson. I'm teaching myself, rather than trying to preach so I hop ethis doesn't annoy anyone too much.
Just part of my "about stuff' in which this blog is supposed to be about. My life and stuff.
Now to cease avoiding this friggin essay.....
No comments:
Post a Comment