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Index
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The outer ring of the mandala has 12 illustrations representing the 12 phases of human consciousness:
The cure for all this suffering is to train the mind to notice and eliminate greed, anger and ignorance, which are the driving forces of this wheel.
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* Beginning at the top we find a spiritually blind man. In his state of ignorance he easily loses his way.
* Moving clockwise, there is a potter whose daily creations represent our deeds, our actions in life, and the beliefs that we follow. Responsibility for the pots that we throw in life is ours.
* The monkey in a tree represents the "monkey mind", the constant chatter or the continuously shifting focus of the untrained mind.
*A boat rocking in the waves symbolizes physical, intellectual, or spiritual instability in our lives.
* An empty house with six shuttered openings depicts the six senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, and the conceptual mind.
* The amorous couple symbolizes desire and the object of desire. Making contact. Embracing the perceived object of desire.
* The man with an arrow in his eye represents "feeling." He has been wounded by emotion and is experiencing the subsequent suffering.
* Next is the image of a person drinking wine and dreaming of an object not yet attained. His unrealized desires are stimulated by his perceptions and emotions.
* In the next frame comes the acquisition of the desired object, while dreams of the next acquisition perpetuate further dissatisfaction. Craving does not cease.
* Continuing clockwise around the circle is the image of a pregnant woman symbolizing the new life we create by our desires and cravings becoming substantive in time.
* The subsequent birth depicts the becoming of this new life.
* This new life is subject to change as is all life. Old age and death are inevitable. Death does not end our suffering. Our friends we leave behind will suffer from our death, and we will begin a new cycle in the Wheel of Life.