Page 17 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

The nature of existence? This question is difficult to answer

because it is easy — only too easy — to answer. I am not being
paradoxical. What mean is that only too many concepts lie ready

to hand. There is so much Buddhist philosophy available. We can
so easily 'slap on' a few technical terms, refer to this system or
that, and say that is the nature of existence according to

Buddhism. But this is too slick, too easy. We must beware of the
temptation of producing our concepts too readily. What one is

trying to communicate is not simply a set of ideas, not a system
of philosophy in the academic sense, but what the Buddha
himself, in his own language, quite unambiguously called drsti, a

'Vision'.

There are two ways, principally, in which a vision can be
communicated — through images and through concepts. In
Buddhism there are three main images of the nature of

existence. These are the Wheel of Life, the Buddha, and the
Path. Since these images communicate a vision, it is helpful, in

absorbing that communication, if we can 'get the picture',
instead of just 'thinking' them in an abstract manner and
assuming they have been understood.

(a) The Wheel of Life

The Wheel of Life comprises four concentric circles. Within the
central circle, which forms the hub of the wheel, are three
animals, a cock, a snake, and a pig, each biting the tail of the

animal in front. These animals represent the three poisons of
greed, hatred and delusion which control our minds and make

revolve the whole wheel of mundane existence. Next to the hub
is a second circle, comprising two segments, one black and one
white, the white half representing the good or ethical path

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