Symbols in Buddhism

For five hundred years Buddhism was an oral tradition, it meant that the basic teachings and stories of Buddhism were memorised rather than written down. In Ancient India, writing was use for practical things like letters or accounts etc. The really important things in life, Philosophy and religion, were memorised. A student would be taught the verses by their teacher or Guru. These were then chanted as tunes or hymns. A verse would be chanted and then the teacher and student would discuss and explore the ideas that it expressed.

To make the words more memorable, they were often put into verse, so they rhymes, or else they repeated a lot, just like a modern day song, and, in the same way, tunes were also used.

To help monks and students remember the key ideas, these were often represented as symbols or diagrams. There is a great deal of symbolism in Buddhism °© and the symbols have to be interpreted and thought about. Sometimes the diagrams are painted images, at other times they are three dimensional, such as the Stupa. These images are often called Yantras. Particular types of Yantra are called Mandalas, which are usually based on the image of a circle. The word Mandala literally means circle. There are many types of Mandala in Buddhist tradition, perhaps the best know are the Dharmachakra and the Bhavachakra. The Dharmachakra means the Wheel of the Law, and it is a way of showing some of the key Buddhist ideas, collectively known as the Noble Eightfold Path, or basic Buddhist practice. The Dharmachakra is also often used as the symbol of Buddhism.

The Bhavachakra literally means the Wheel of Becoming, and it is meant to be a kind of mirror, in which we can see the workings of impermanence, on how all things are conditioned. We can look at it and see how change happens in us. The Bhavachakra is often better known in the west as the Wheel of Life.