The Cosmic Wheel and Wheel of Existence

reaching the center (the Initiation) from which it is not possible to exit without Ariadne's thread. The cosmic wheel and the wheel turners In the Indian tradition this perennial journey in the phenomenal world from which it is not possible to exit has a specific representation which is that of the Bhavachakra or Wheel of Existence, also called Samsara. This representation, which tradition claims was first drawn by Buddha himself, is important because it specifies the three illnesses of consciousness that keep the individual imprisoned and anchored to the phenomenal world. In the representation you see here, consciousness is imprisoned in this continuous wheel held firm by Yama, the Lord of Death also considered Guardian of the Threshold, who guards the wheel of existence and the phenomenal world with his jaws. As you can see, the eyes have no eyelids because he is always awake and full of fire because always active in transforming consciousnesses and making them pass from one state to another of existence which, in this case, is classified into six fundamental states of existence: the realm of the Gods, the realm of men, the realm of animals, the infernal realm, the realm of hungry ghosts, the realm of titanic demons. Each of these realms is prisoner of illusion. For example, even the realm of the Gods are deluded because they believe they find satisfaction for their desires within the Cosmos. In each of these realms there is a Buddha present who tries to help consciousnesses exit the wheel. The motion of consciousnesses within the wheel can be an ascending or descending motion according to a universal flow or reflux, according to the two white and black channels of the wheel of life. The white ascending or right-hand path and the black descending associated with the left-hand path. Inside are found what are called the three poisons that infect consciousness, bind it to the wheel and move it being the three turners of the wheel. These are represented by the cock, the serpent and the pig: the cock, that is attachment or craving; the serpent, that is pride or egoism; and the pig, that is ignorance. These three diseases of the unconscious, or the 3 abysses as the Tibetan Book of the Dead calls them, are the cause of all of Man's problems: Pain is a perception we have dictated by the fear that our body has of dying or being damaged and which transmits to us the sensation of pain. If one is under morphine, for example, it is not that they don't feel the sensation of pain but have suspended the emotional perception of pain. To give an example of the mechanism by which this wheel functions we can take one of the secondary effects produced such as exterior perception which in this representation is in the outer circle represented as a house with 6 windows. (Cock) Exterior perception through the senses in this context is conceived as the cause-effect produced by pride and egoism which tends to isolate the individual from the rest of the world and therefore represent what is not him as something not interior, but exterior. Egoism is the force that leads to circumscribing individuality separating it from others in contrast to love for one's neighbor and sacrifice that leads to breaking one's individuality in favor of one's neighbor. (serpent) pride and egoism leads to ignorance of one's neighbor and therefore to ignorance of God, and therefore to losing the scale of true spiritual values therefore to craving (pig) here therefore craving and greed which is dictated by the impulse to try to materially satisfy a desire that however cannot be satisfied with the realities of this world. Sleep for example in the Buddhist tradition is associated with ignorance because it is ignorance of oneself and of God that leads consciousnesses to overlook their spiritual needs and drag themselves in the passage of time. Sleep corresponds to a loss of consciousness of oneself. Outside the wheel, in a transcendent aspect however in the representation there is a representation of the Spirit of Buddha who tries to help consciousnesses exit and who is always present within every world. That is, there is always a way, an influence, the possibility of exiting from this wheel of phenomenal existence compatible with the action that consciousness is willing to perform. It must indeed overcome the three infections of consciousness and affirm the three opposite virtues that will allow it to exit the phenomenal world: Craving with Detachment in conformity with Divine Omnipotence, Ignorance with Wisdom in conformity with Omniscience, Hatred with Love of God and Love of Neighbor. Here for example with detachment, there being no more Craving toward life (clearly a physiological and biological craving rooted in the body and normally unconscious) there is no longer Fear of death and therefore there is no longer physical Pain which is nothing but the sensation of fear transmitted by the human body to man's consciousness to draw his attention to a biological danger. No longer existing Hatred, human consciousness finds itself reunited at the center of the Universe and no longer existing Ignorance finds itself awake. To achieve so much, such deep work in the consciousness of each individual certainly requires methods and constant action aimed at overcoming the barriers and obstacles that stand in the way of consciousness. The Cave This action is connected to the symbol of the cave which is akin to the symbol of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth in fact represents not only the succession of the phenomenal world and the labyrinth of existence, but at the same time represents the set of trials and barriers that separate and protect from birth to new life that is from the conquest of Initiation. Initiation indeed literally means "new beginning," beginning to new life and coincides on one hand with the Exit of Consciousness from the Cosmos, and the separation of the individual from the wheel of Cosmic becoming and the grafting into another state characterized by a certain Gnosis of God and which produces birth to a new life which we will then see later.