Page 177 - Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated) and Symbols

realms are too concerned with their pains and survival to think

about spiritual practice or enlightenment. Hell beings only await

the exhaustion of their karma to end their indescribable suffer-

ings while the Ghosts or Pretas are totally distorted by the deep

frustrations to satisfy their unsatisfied passions. Animals, while

suffering less, are born stupid due to the result of their willful

ignorance and are therefore unable to derive any benefit from

Dharma. ey live only by instinct and must face a daily reality

of searching for food or mate, and killing or be killed.

One’s life thus move in endless cycles within these Six Realms

of Gods, Asuras, Human Beings, Animals, Hungry Ghosts and

Hell Beings so long as Ignorance is not uprooted and Enlighten-

ment gained.

In the centre of the Wheel is seen the ree Animals which rep-

resent the ree Poisons or Root Causes of an unenlightened ex-

istence. e Rooster represents passionate desire and attachment,

the Green Snake represents hatred, emity and aversion, and the

Boar represents the darkness of ignorance and ego-delusion, the

blind urge that drives beings round and round in the unend-

ing circle of births and deaths. ey are depicted as biting each

other’s tails, linking in such a way that they too form a circle be-

cause Greed, Anger and Delusion condition each other and are

inseparably connected. We must learn to recognise these poisons

as the forces that control our quality of life and take proper steps

to quell and remove them. How we perform in each life is de-

pendent on these root causes, the result of which is quite clearly

depicted by the figures of the outer rim of this hub — Virtuous

 