Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.64

c4.64

The content of the wheel symbolism is extraordinarily rich, and can only be outlined here. Its dimensions are indefinite, its radius the variable distance between an undimensioned (amātra) point and an immeasurable (asaṅkhya) circumference; there in the "middle space" (antarikṣa, ākāśa), between the "I" and the "not-I," lie procession and recession (pravṛtti, nivṛtti), there are good and evil (dharmādharmau), joy and sorrow (sukha, duḥkha), light and shade (chāyātapa), birth and death, all local movement and affection; and that motion and passibility are greater the greater the distance from the centre. Beyond the felly lies only the inexistence of the irrational, an impossibility of existence, as of square circles or the horns of a hare; within the nave, the non-existence of the supra-rational.⁵⁸