Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.63

c4.63

Actually to represent all possible states of being, the Wheel would have to be conceived in the manner of a gyroscope, revolving simultaneously in an indefinite number of planes, though still with a motionless centre: just as the Cross must be thought of from this point of view as constituted of three arms, mutually at right angles, intersecting at the one common point which is also the centre of the sphere in which the Cross stands. Actually, however, this would be to introduce a needless complication, and in fact the symbol as employed is essentially an ordinary chariot-wheel,⁵⁶ just as also in common usage the two-armed cross stands for a cross extended in three directions. Although, then, the Wheel, as the "round of the world" and "earth plain," strictly speaking corresponds only to a given ensemble of conditions, it represents analogically the indefinite totality of all possible conditions, the entire saṁsāra. As thus representing the Universe in its entirety, the Wheel symbol remains in use unchanged from Rg Veda, I, 164, through Svetāśvatara Up., I, 4, and Anugītā, XXX, to Kabīr and the present day.⁵⁷