This Incredible Buddhist Mandala Depicts the Insanity of American Life
This image is a modern take on one of the most famous images in Buddhist art, the Wheel of Life or Bhavachakra. The form is one that has been copied throughout the history of Buddhism and in every nation where the religion has spread to.
It is essentially a visual representation of Buddhist cosmology, that is to say, a picture of the world and all of existence from the perspective of the Buddhist teachings. The six main sections into which the circle is divided represent the six realms of rebirth. In traditional renderings these would be the realms of Gods, demigods, humans, ghosts, animals and hells. If you believe in reincarnation then you can see this a literal sense, as places you can actually be reborn after you die, but even if you don't this image shows that, in principle, life is a spectrum ranging from very good to very bad conditions, and this is true wherever you look.
At the very top of the wheel is the White House, or it could be a royal palace, signifying the peak of wealth and luxury possible in the physical world. Just below that we have a McMansion with a swimming pool and its owner playing golf. In the original paintings this would be the realm of the Gods. In the level just below are the middle classes, representing the demigods, and below them the working classes, representing humans, whose life is characterised by struggle and hard work.
This is the top half of the wheel of life, the so called fortunate rebirths. In the bottom half are the unfortunate rebirths. On one side you have the government projects, and people living on welfare, as well as the homeless and tent cities, and probably people bankrupt or in debt. In the original paintings this would be the realm of the so-called "hungry ghosts", undead beings who are tormented by, for example, having huge bellies and tiny mouths, so no matter how much they ate they could never be satisfied. On the other side you have the animals, some of which get to live in relative comfort, but most live in a hell on earth in factory farms, and end their lives in a slaughterhouse. At the bottom we have the real hells, riots, societal collapse, mental institutions, and maximum security prisons.
At the centre of the image are the three root poisons that keep this wheel turning, greed, represented by the dollar bill, hatred, represented by the tank, and delusion, represented by the TV set.
I think it's important to reflect on this image for a number of reasons. We live in a culture that only wants to look at what is positive, but not the negative, but this is not reality. It is also a very selfish way of thinking, as it means you are ignoring the suffering of other beings, whose place you could very easily be in. A reminder of this is the character in the centre receiving a pink slip, falling into the gutter, then climbing back up the social ladder onto the red carpet and into a private jet, and then back again.
What this image teaches us is that wisdom means to look at the whole spectrum of existence, and realise that whatever we are chasing here is temporary, and wherever we are in the cycle of existence, we are not free until we are outside of it. The giant demon holding the wheel is Mara, the King of Death, here depicted as Uncle Sam, and to escape him we must let go of our attachment to material things, to wealth, success, fame, possessions and so on. These things only trap us deeper in the cycle.
The Buddhas shown outside of this wheel have escaped because they have renounced the world and all attachment to it, and by doing so they have attained peace. They have seen that there is no point in chasing after wealth, success and being attached to this material world, it is an illusion, and you can lose it all overnight, and you will lose it eventually. This is the middle path in Buddhism, and what the Four Noble Truths teach. Life is suffering, the cause of suffering is craving, enlightenment is the end of suffering, and the way to enlightenment is the practice of wisdom, morality and concentration.
https://ultraculture.org/blog/2015/04/03/buddhist-mandala-american-life/
thank you for putting out truth and healing vibrations! =D namaste
Thank you for your kind words!
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
- Albert Einstein
I think physical reality itself is not necessarily an illusion, that's the persistent part, but what we project onto it certainly is. One of the earliest tenets of the Buddhist teachings is to "see things as they are", as impermanent, temporary and lacking in self, or independent existence, and to live accordingly. This means to live a very simple, spartan existence and focus on meditation. Clinging on to experiences and circumstances in our lives, positive or negative, and the additional layer of corresponding emotions we create around that is the root of suffering.
Thank you for your comment!
Interestingly, Plato also talks about this idea of "seeing things as they are" as the fundamental duty for seekers of wisdom. Lots of connections between and East and West.
Thanks for the post.
Thanks for your comment! Are you familiar with the Buddhist teachings of emptiness? That is the real innovation that I don't think you see anywhere else, or at least no other philosophy that I'm aware of takes the via negativa approach as far.
Not sure, anything I could check out for more info?
I think the best introduction is the Diamond Sutra, which was one of the first and most famous Mahayana Buddhist scriptures to express these ideas. It's quite short, but you can listen to it on YouTube as an audiobook!
Basically emptiness is the philosophical position that nothing exists, as counter-intuitive as that sounds. It is total nihilism, taken to its most extreme extent.
It is a mindset that is so powerful because of how it fits into Buddhist soteriology. According to the Four Noble Truths the cause of suffering is attachment, but this attachment itself has a cause, which is conceptualisation. The Buddhist teachings recognise the fundamental disconnect between our mind that conceptualises, and grasps at solidity and a self, and the reality of a universe which in constant flux and characterised by impermanence, always changing. The root of suffering is attaching emotionally to things that are only really a snapshot of a moment in time, like a dream or an illusion.
It's pretty scary, as it leaves you basically staring into a gaping void. But emptiness is the door through which you pass into the religious, or you could say transcendental side of Buddhism. It is a philosophical method that is meant to break your conceptual mind and cut through to a pure vision of the ultimate reality, beyond this material world.
That's why this is called the diamond sutra, or in the Sanskrit, "Vajra Cutter Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra." Emptiness represents the unbreakable nature of consciousness abiding in the ultimate reality. It's the inspiration behind my name, adamantine, and the symbol I use, the vajra. 😊
Thanks will check it out!
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