The Wheel Of Life

Buddhist Model of Compulsive Life & Liberation

Dr. Miles Neale

Rubin Museum and Nalanda Institute
Wheel of Life
Tibet, early 20th century
Pigments on cloth
Rubin Museum of Art
C2004.21.1 (HAR 65356)
 The Three Compulsive Instincts

1. Delusion/Confusion (Pig) Reification and Misperception of Reality

2. Desire/Clinging (Bird) Mindless Acquisition and Fear-based

Attachment

3. Hatred/Aggression (Snake) Mindless Repulsion and Defensive

Hostility
 The Ascent and Decent of Consciousness 
According to Actions (karma)
Consciousness ascends towards favorable states of experience as a result
of wholesome actions (Realms = God, Demi-god, and Human)

Consciousness descends towards unfavorable states of experience as a

result of unwholesome actions (Realms = Animal, Hell, and Ghost)

Wholesome and unwholesome actions are distinguished by the intention

to cause either ease or harm to oneself and others.

As long as intentional actions (both good and bad) remain rooted in

fundamental delusion, beings will be endlessly bound to the compulsive
life cycle (samsara).

The elimination of of the root delusion is the cause of liberation.

 The Six Psychological States/Realms

Three Favorable States or Higher Realms (God, Demi-god,

and Human) result from wholesome intentional actions.

Three Unfavorable States or Lower Realms (Animal, Ghost,

and Hell) result from unwholesome intentional action.
 Animal Realm

Animal Forms: Impulse-bound beings struggling to survive.

Primary Affliction: Fear

Psychological experience of moderate anxiety, fear,

trepidation, being compelled by immediate drives of safety,
hunger and sexual gratification. Largely ignorant about the
minds latent capacity for self-correction, self-regulation and
consciously determined freedom.
 Ghost Realm

Ghostly Forms: Addicted beings with insatiable appetites.

Primary Affliction: Greed.

Psychological experience of addiction, chronic

dissatisfaction, inner emptiness, meaninglessness, more acute
or moderate varieties of anxiety, OCD etc.
 Hell Realm

Hellish Forms: Tormented beings locked in war against all.

Primary Affliction: Hate

Psychological experience of acute trauma, intense anxiety,

major depression with suicidality, hopelessness, despair,
psychotic states of delusion, paranoia, and dissociation,
antisocial personality, and extreme borderline personality.
 Human Realm

Human Forms: Insecure beings clinging to childish love.

Primary Affliction: Naive clinging.

Psychological experience of tolerable suffering, mild states of depression,

anxiety, grief, yearning and existential distress, mixed intermittingly with
pleasure and joy.

Of all six realms, the Human realm is said to provide the optimal
conditions to seek liberation: A balance of optimal frustration with access
to reflective capacities and motivation for change.
 God and Demi-god Realm

Godly Forms: Narcissistic Souls Playing Out Fantasy Lives

Primary Affliction: Pride, Self-involvement

Psychological experience of great pride, talent, charisma and good fortune that
leads to a kind of self-absorption or narcissism. Also a pseudo spiritual union or
power, which is more like an infantile regression, and still within compulsive life. 

Titanic Forms, Shame-Based Souls Driven to Beat Everyone

Primary Affliction: Envy, Competitiveness

Psychological experience of growing power and ego striving, yet intense jealousy,
competitiveness, and envy.
 Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
(Pratityatsamudpada)

Buddhist model of causality

the 12 chain links that dependently condition

our experience of compulsive life.
 Twelve Links of Dependent Origination
1. Unconscious Reification and Misperception (Avidya)
2. Traumatic Imprints (Samskara)
3. Distorted Consciousness (Vijnana)
4. Primitive Self Construct (Namarupa)
5. Distorted Sense Perceptions (Ayatana)
6. Sensory Contact (Sparsa)
7. Hedonic Sensation (Vedana)
8. Afflictive Reaction (Trishna)
9. Compulsive Action (Upadana)
10. Traumatic Self-Identification (Bhavana)
11. Repetition Compulsion (Jati)
12. Tragic Aging, Illness, and Death (Jara-marana)
 Unconscious Reification and Misperception
(Avidya)
Link 1: Self-Reifying Delusion aka Unconscious Misperception
(Avidya).

Image: A blind, old woman with a cane.

Causality: Through misperception, the instinctual impulses and traumatic
imprints are conditioned.

Misperception is of two types: reification of I and things as well as the

lack of understanding as to how things are produced (karma).

Links 1 & 2 relate to the past.

 Traumatic Imprints (Samskara)

Link 2: Karmic Propensity aka Instinctual Impulses aka Mental

Formations aka Traumatic Imprints (Samskara).

Image: A woman molding clay on a potters wheel.

Causality: Through the instinctual impulses and traumatic imprints (in
the past life) defuse consciousness (in the present life) is conditioned.

Implicit memory and past trauma as well as principal of associations and

habituations.

Links 1 & 2 relate to the past.

 Distorted Consciousness (Vijnana)

Link 3: Defuse Consciousness aka Mental Continuum (Vijnana).

Image: A monkey jumping from roof to roof.

Causality: Through diffuse consciousness, the self-construct (mind/body

life systems) is conditioned.

Consciousness is not a discrete thing/entity but a continuity of nexus

moments of awareness ie. When eye and visual object meet, seeing
consciousness arises.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Primitive Self Construct (Namarupa)

Link 4: Name and Form aka Mind/Body System aka Primitive Self-
construct. Self-identity (Namarupa).

Image: One man rowing a boat (sometimes two men in a boat, taken to
mean the mind and body body).

Causality: Through the primitive self-construct the distorted sense

perceptions are conditioned ( i.e. the 5 physical sense-organs, and
consciousness as the sixth).

Synonymous with the five aggregates or life systems (skhandas). 4 of

mind sensation, conception, emotion, consciousness and 1 of body
(four elements).

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Distorted Sense Perceptions (Ayatana)

Link 5: Six Senses, aka Sense Bases, aka Sense faculties, aka Distorted
Sense Perceptions (Ayatana).

Image: A prosperous looking house with many doors and windows.

Causality: Through the six distorted sense perceptions, sensory contact is
conditioned.

Perceptual Faculties include: Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue, Body, and Mind

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Sensory Contact (Sparsa)

Link 6: Sensory Contact (Sparsha).

Image: A couple embracing.

Causality = Through sensory contact, hedonistic sensation is conditioned.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Hedonic Sensation (Vedana)

Link 7: Feeling aka Hedonic Sensation (Vedana).

Image: A man with an arrow piercing his eye.

Causality: Through hedonistic sensation, afflictive emotional reactions

are conditioned.

Classified into three types: unpleasant/painful sensation, pleasant

sensation and neither/neutral sensation.

This link is associated with the karmic ripening/effect in the present of a

previous karmic cause.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Afflictive Reaction (Trishna)

Link 8: Craving aka Afflictive Reaction (Trishna).

Image: A man indulging in wine.

Causality = Through afflictive reaction, compulsive actions are

conditioned.

There are three primary, habituated reactions: Mindless aversion to

unpleasant sensation, mindless clinging to pleasant sensation and
mindless disinterest or disengagement to neutral sensation.

This link is associated with causal karma in the present, to ripen as a

karmic effect in the future.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Compulsive Action (Upadana)

Link 9: Grasping aka Obsession aka Compulsive Action (Upadana).

Image: A monkey (sometimes a person) hoarding fruits.

Causality: Through compulsive action the process of traumatic self-identification

is conditioned.

The way afflictive reactions habituate over time becomes compulsive actions.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Traumatic Self-Identification (Bhavana)

Link 10: Becoming aka Existence aka Traumatic Self-identification
(Bhava).

Image: A pregnant woman or sometimes a couple embracing as a prelude

to sexual union.

Causality: Through traumatic self-identification in the present, a

traumatic repetition compulsion in the future is conditioned.

Links 3-10 relate to the present.

 Repetition Compulsion (Jati)

Link 11: Birth aka Traumatic repetition, aka Repetition Compulsion

(Jati)

Image: A woman in labor.

Causality = Through the traumatic repletion compulsion, tragic illness,
aging and death are conditioned.

Links 11-12 relate to the future.

Tragic Aging, Illness, and Death (Jara-marana)

Link 12: Mindless or Tragic Aging, Illness and Death (Jaramaranam).

Image: A corpse being carried to the cremation ground.

Causality: Mindless death, further conditions misperception in future
lives.

Links 11-12 relate to future.

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 Causal Development Over Phases of Time

Links Time Relation

Misperception (Avidya) Past Cause

Past Action (Links 1-2)

Afflicting Reaction (Klesha) Present Effect

Present Reaction (Links 2-7)

Compulsive Action (Karma) Present Cause

Present Action (Links 8-10)

Traumatic Life (Samsara) Future Effect

Future Reaction (Links 11-12)
 


Dr. Miles Neale

www.milesneale.com

www.nalandainstitute.org