Bhavacakra
The bhavachakra (Sanskrit: भवचक्र; Pāli: bhavacakka; Tibetan: སྲིད་པའི་འཁོར་ལོ, Wylie: srid pa'i 'khor lo) or wheel of life is a visual teaching aid and meditation tool symbolically representing saṃsāra (or cyclic existence).
[web 1] In Buddhism, bhava denotes the continuity of becoming (reincarnating) in one of the realms of existence, in the samsaric context of rebirth, life and the maturation arising therefrom.
[4] Legend has it that the historical Buddha himself created the first depiction of the bhavachakra, and the story of how he gave the illustration to King Rudrāyaṇa appears in the anthology of Buddhist narratives called the Divyāvadāna.
[11][12] In many drawings of the wheel, the snake and bird are shown as coming out of the mouth of the pig, indicating that aversion and attachment arise from ignorance.
[12] Ringu Tulku states: Propelled by their karma, beings take rebirth in the six realms of samsara, as shown in the next layer of the circle.
The third layer of the wheel is divided into six sections that represent the six realms of samsara, or cyclic existence, the process of cycling through one rebirth after another.
[22][24][25] The twelve causal links, paired with their corresponding symbols, are: The wheel is being held by a fearsome figure who represents impermanence.
[26] Regardless of the figure depicted, the inner meaning remains the same–that the entire process of cyclic existence (samsara) is transient; everything within this wheel is constantly changing.
In Tibetan Buddhism, this is Lamrim, which details all the stages on the path, while Zen has its own complicated history of the entanglement of meditation practice and direct insight.
The remaining ten links (of the Dependent Origination) are its spokes (i.e. karma formations [saṅkhāra] up to process of becoming [bhava]).
According to Mark Epstein, "each realm becomes not so much a specific place but rather a metaphor for a different psychological state, with the entire wheel becoming a representation of neurotic suffering.
