THE WHEEL OF LIFE..

It is real. It seems so surreal though, but this is it! Bhutan…

From the flight (spotting the great Everest!) and the landing; the views, the food and… the people; from the seconds to the minutes; I’ve been here not more than a day, but you need no more than a second to appreciate this place. It has been incredible.

There are moments when you have to even pinch yourself, just to ‘confirm’ it is not a dream! Haha!

I’ve been searching for this! And, I know I’m so ridiculous with my romantic moments; but as far as I can recall, I have never been so in love with life in my whole life!

  

I’m eternally grateful.

And speaking of life, I think I have never, ever paid so much attention to what I’ve heard (except maybe with some horse-related things), as I did today for the whole day.

Now, I will share with you something my guide taught me today about the “Buddhist Wheel of Life”…

So it is said that…

The Lord of death holds the ‘Wheel of Life’, to remind us that every living thing in this world is not able to escape perishing.

The circle in the center holds the three poisons: A chicken representing ‘desire’; a snake representing ‘hatred’ and a pig representing ‘ignorance’.

On the outer part of this circle, which shows the ‘three poisons’, you find the path of light (left side) and the dark path (right side).

Surrounding these, you find the six different lives. The three on top (looking at it in a clockwise direction) show the ‘demi god’ life, ‘heaven’ and ‘human’. While the three on the bottom (again, looking at it in a clockwise direction) show the ‘hungry ghosts’, ‘hell’ and lastly the ‘animal’ life.

The demi god life – Men are ugly, the women beautiful; and this life is characterized by having a lot of conflict with the heavenly gods, due to the fact that these gods eat the fruits of the tree which has been grown by the demi gods (as shown in the picture).

On top the Buddha holds an armor.

Heaven – Place for the gods and goddesses. These enjoy all the good things of life, but this tends to make them forget the path of light. Therefore, the Buddha holds a Bhutanese guitar (I forgot the name), so the gods do not forget following the path of light.

Human – This is us. And being born as a human is considered a very lucky thing here in Bhutan, as we are able to distinguish right from wrong.

In this image, Buddha holds a begging bowl.

Hungry ghosts – Their mouths, extremely small. Their neck, as thin a horse’s tale hair. Their bellies are huge and their legs as thin as grass. This is the place for the greedy and the cunning.

They cannot eat, because of their small mouths. Even if they do eat, the food won’t pass through their thin neck. Even if the food passes, their bellies are so full that they won’t feel satisfied; and the food will make them spit fire.

Here, the Buddha holds a flask with holy water.

Hell – Again, where the Lord of Death Rules; and beneath him lay two other gods (the white and black one) who each hold a basket full of papers (white and black papers).

It is said that we all carry the dark god on our left shoulder and the white one on our right shoulder.

Every time we do a good thing, the white god will put a white paper in its basket. Each time we do a bad thing, the dark god will put a black one into his.

At the time of our death, they both count the papers in front of the Lord of Death and it is decided in what part of the Wheel of Life we are reincarnated into.

Animal – (Can’t remember this one actually! Sorry, I’m guessing my brain reached its memory capacity!)

Surrounding these 6 lives, are the attachments (1st picture above). Whoever frees itself from the three poisons and the attachments in life, is that one who reaches enlightenment!

Hope you liked the explanation/story!

Tomorrow, Follow mE hikes all the way up to a monastery, then visits a painting school, the National Memorial Chorten, a small wildlife reserve and the Buddha Point! So, I’ll bring these stories back to you!

I’ll also make sure to upload more pictures later. At the moment I’m too lazy + tired.

Greetings to all and tale care!

PEACE
Your writer,
Maria