Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.30

c4.30

The World-tree then, equally in and apart from its Buddhist application, is the procession of incessant life. Standing erect and midmost in the garden of life, extending from Earth to Heaven, branching throughout Space (we shall see later that “space” is “within you”), that is the one Wishing-tree (kappa-rukkha, kalpa-vṛkṣa) that yields the fruits of life, all that every creature calls “good.” Buddhism interprets this, as it interprets the corresponding symbol of the Dharmacakra, from an edifying point of view: that Wisdom-tree (jñāna-druma) “whose roots strike deep into stability . . . whose flowers are moral acts . . . which bears righteousness (dharma) as its fruit . . . ought not to be felled,” Buddhacarita, XIII, 65. But amongst the accidents of being, the fruits of life, are also the wages of desire, that is our mortality, jarā-maraṇa, all that every existence, each embodied will to life, calls “evil.” So the World-tree, as an exteriorization of the Will to Life, kāma, and corresponding Craving, taṇhā, tṛṣṇā, from the point of view of all those who would be naughted is a tree to be felled at the root: in Buddhism, a “vine of coveting (taṇhā-latā), who shall cut (chind)