Bhavacakra (Wheel of Becoming)

Over two thousand years ago in India, the great Shakyamuni Buddha instructed his disciples to paint a special image on the vestibule walls of the monastery: a diagrammatic circle depicting the stages of rebirth, an image that came to be known as a bhavacakra.

Later, when Buddhism traveled to Tibet, iterations of the bhavacakra traveled with it, and wound up on scroll paintings known as thangkas, which is what you see here, painted by a contemporary master.

In Sanskrit, bhava means “becoming” and cakra means “wheel.’’ The notion of “becoming” is at the heart of Buddhist thought, as it is believed that all sentient beings are in a constant state of becoming, never static, and always subject to the laws of karma. 

Furthermore, due to their ignorance, they are trapped in a cyclical “wheel” of existence called samsara, where they are endlessly reborn into various realms of suffering—whether as demigods, gods, humans, hungry ghosts, hell beings, or animals, shown here as the six “slices of the pie.”

In Sanskrit, the word karma simply means action. Our actions—what we think, how we behave—ultimately shape our future “becoming,” whether in this life or the next. 

Unfortunately, our actions are too often shaped by “the three poisons,” represented at the hub of the wheel. We are clouded by ignorance (pig), desire (rooster), and hatred (snake). Notice how each animal grasps the tail of another, reminding us that the three poisons feed into and fuel each other. 

Ignorance, the root poison, points to our basic misapprehension of the impermanent nature of reality. We see ourselves as having a separate, immutable, fixed self, rather than a self that exists interdependently with others. Our attachment to this perception of permanence causes suffering.

Depending on our karma, sometimes we are born into higher realms as humans, gods, or demigods, or into lower realms, as animals, hell beings, or hungry ghosts. This constant rising and falling action is depicted in this black-and-white ring  surrounding the hub.

Yamaraja, the Lord of Death, holds the entire wheel in his ferocious grip.

He reiterates our bondage to this cycle, yet his third eye also shows his wisdom, reminding us that all things are impermanent, even the bhavacakra itself. 

You will  be glad of the impermanent nature of reality while looking at the lower realms. They are pretty miserable! Here we see the hungry ghosts who have enormous bellies yet tiny throats, making it impossible to satisfy their hunger. It is said that those who are stingy and unkind wind up as hungry ghosts.

In the hell realm, people are burned, impaled, and boiled in hot oil, among other horrors. Also present are those who still actively cause pain to others. However, notice there is also a buddha here, as in all the realms, who in his enlightened state chose rebirth in this realm to assist others.

While those of us who love our pets might beg to differ, being reborn as an animal in this cosmology is unfavorable. In Buddhist narratives, animals are sometimes depicted as having more wisdom than human beings, though overall, animals are more often victims of prey, are slaughtered for food, and must generally work harder to survive. 

Of the higher realms, you might think that the god realm would be most ideal. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a god? But existing in a constant state of comfort and ease, the gods grow lazy. They even experience in-fighting amongst themselves, as the demi-gods become jealous of the higher gods.  

Luckily for us, being reborn as a human is the most fortunate rebirth, because we are able to learn the proper teachings to escape this wheel of suffering. Here we see disciples receiving teachings on how to escape samsara. 

In short, humans possess the ability to create our world through our actions. But how? 

The outermost ring of the bhavacakra depicts this process of “becoming” psychologically as well as metaphysically in what is called the Twelve Links of Dependent Arising. In this ring, we see an illustration of how our actions manifest our futures through a causal chain of events. In short, it is an explanation of the karmic unfolding of life, death, and rebirth.  

The first two links represent previous lifetimes. First is a man who is ignorant of the true nature of reality, symbolized by blindness. Following him, we see a potter making pots, symbolizing the way in which ignorance becomes infused in our activities and in what we create.  

When we’re reborn, these “karmic formations” are infused in our conscious awareness, symbolized here by a monkey; our embodied consciousness, symbolized as man boating in a river; and our sense faculties, which are like doors and windows through which we experience the world, symbolized by a house. In short, our past karma shapes the person we become.

We cannot help but make contact with the world with our senses. This is symbolized by the image of a couple in union, although contact can mean engagement with the world at any level. The sensations we experience via contact—whether positive, negative, or neutral—give rise to all sorts of feelings, symbolized here by a man with an arrow in his eye. 

All these feelings give way to desire and grasping, symbolized by a man drinking alcohol. This is where we can get into trouble, as desire gives way to attachment and even obsession, symbolized by the monkey grasping at fruit. This can overtake us, causing us to harm ourselves and others, too.

Finally, we have the stage of becoming itself, bhava, which is the fruition of all the previous stages, symbolized here by a pregnant woman. And this gives way to another rebirth, or the ripening of all our past karmas, as we start the cycle again.  

So how does one escape this endless cycle of rebirth? 

At the top right corner of the thangka, you’ll see the Buddha Shakyamuni pointing at the moon, a symbol of liberation from samsara.

Vajradhara Buddha, the guardian and protector of the teachings, appears on the left. Notice how they both exist outside the spinning of the bhavacakra. As enlightened beings, they represent the taming of the mind and the attainment of complete realization.

To learn more about this path to liberation, take a look at the Śamatha thangka nearby.

Tenzin Norbu (Tibetan, b. 1973)
Buchang Nubgya (Tibetan, b. 1979)

Bhavacakra (Wheel of Becoming), 2022. Mineral pigments on cotton. Gift of the Michael C. Carlos Museum Leadership Board in honor of Bonnie Speed. 2022.10.1

Text by Faith McClure