Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated)

 

I is therefore the ultimate link in the chain, the source

from which our pain and suffering arise. Once Ignorance is de-

stroyed by the gaining of Wisdom and Insight, then the whole

Dependent Origination will collapse.

Pictorial representation of these Twelve Causes and Conditions

can best be seen from the Tibetan Wheel of Life. At the rim

of the Wheel are the twelve symbolic illustrations, each repre-

senting one of the links of the Twelvefold Chain of Causation

whereby sentient beings are ensnared life after life. It can be ex-

plained thus:

1. A B M as primordial I.
   2. A P as A which brings about Karmic
   Formations.
   3. A A M as C.
   4. T M   B as N and F.
   5. H W S W as S E
   6. L-M as C
   7. A I T E as F.
   8. D as T or C.
   9. A M G F as G.


2. A P W  B or E.


3. C As B.


4. M C A C representing D which
   results in D to be followed by rounds of birth and
   death endlessly within the Samsaric existences.