The Wheel of Life

1. The Cycle of Dependent Origination
In the Buddhist context, the dependent nature is known as samsāra. Samsāra
literally means ‘continuous flow’- referring to a repeating cycle of birth, life, death
and re-birth. In other words, there is a repeating cycle of rising and falling
activities that in turn would give rise to the regular balanced and imbalanced
phenomena as being observed by the mind. This scenario can be portrayed in the
cycle of dependent origination shown as below: -
Balance leads to stability. Stability leads to aggregation. Aggregation leads to
agitation. Agitation leads to information. Information leads to knowledge.
Knowledge leads to representation. Representation leads to memory. Memory
leads to compulsion. Compulsion leads to ignorance. Ignorance leads to blindness.
Blindness leads to disorientation. Disorientation leads to confusion. Confusion
leads to irrationality. Irrationality leads to impulse. Impulse leads to sparkling.
Sparkling leads to inkling. Inkling leads to volition. Volition leads to awareness.
Awareness leads to consciousness. Consciousness leads to manas. Manas leads
to mind and body. Mind and body lead to sensation. Sensation leads to six sense
bases. Six sense bases lead to conductivity. Conductivity leads to contact.
Contact leads to stimulation. Stimulation leads to feeling. Feeling leads to
experience. Experience leads to craving. Craving leads to grasping. Grasping
leads to clinging. Clinging leads to unsettling. Unsettling leads to becoming.
Becoming leads to creation. Creation leads to birth. Birth leads to energising.
Energising leads to mobility. Mobility leads to hauling. Hauling leads to aging.
Aging leads to draining. Draining leads to death. Death leads to fragility. Fragility
leads to segregation. Segregation leads to diffusion. Diffusion leads to imbalance.
Imbalance leads to adjustment. Adjustment leads to alignment. Alignment leads to
new balance.

2. The Cycle of Dependent Origination
The principle in effect: -
A stream of balanced phenomena would conjure up aggregation,
A stream of aggregation would conjure up information,
A stream of information would conjure up memory,
A stream of memories would conjure up ignorance,
A stream of ignorance would conjure up volitional impulse,
A stream of volitional impulses would conjure up consciousness,
A stream of consciousness would conjure up body and mind,
A stream of body and mind would conjure up six sense bases,
A stream of six sense bases would conjure up contact,
A stream of contacts would conjure up feeling,
A stream of feelings would conjure up craving,
Fragility
Segregation
Stimulation
Draining
Becoming
Creation
Birth
Energising
Mobility
Aging
Death
Feeling
Grasping
Balance
Memory
Six sense basesConductivityContactExperience
Craving
Clinging
Unsettling
Compulsion
Ignorance
Disorientation
Confusion
Awareness
Consciousness
ManasMind & bodySensation
Information
Knowledge
Representation
Stability Aggregation Agitation
Impulse
Hauling Blindness
Irrationality
Sparkling
Inkling
Volition
ImbalanceDiffusion Adjustment Alignment
Black
hole of
Emptines
s

3. A stream of cravings would conjure up clinging,
A stream of clinging would conjure up becoming,
A stream of becoming would conjure up birth,
A stream of births would conjure up aging,
A stream of aging would conjure up death,
A stream of deaths would conjure up segregation,
A stream of segregation would conjure up imbalanced phenomenon,
A stream of imbalanced phenomena would conjure up new balanced phenomenon.
Thus the conditional phenomena would continue repeatedly to depict the rising and
falling activities in the dependent nature, just like a continuum of wavy pattern
oscillating up and down. However, the cycle of dependent origination cannot be
directly translated as a linear point of reference because the conventional reality
does not work in-linear but in inter-dependence, inter-woven since the dawn of
time in a very comprehensive and complicated network of existence.