The Trees and the Bees

There was once a forest of trees, which lived a magnificent and beautiful life. Due to the natural development of their surroundings, the trees "climaxed," and then gradually died, giving way to smaller species that lived below them. Various groups of bees made their nests in the hollow trunks of these dead trees and became very happy making honey. Gradually, the trees, one by one, began to decay and fall.


The various groups of bees debated amongst themselves why this should be and concluded that it must have something to do with the various merits of their hives. Some felt that when a tree fell, the bees in it were being punished for improper belief. Others felt more charitable and wanted to bring the homeless bees to their hive, saying "It could have been us, after all." Still others felt that the hives of the homeless bees must have been flawed in some way from the beginning and so were predestined to fail.

The trees gradually continued to fall, one by one, and each time one fell, the bees in those trees still standing developed more speculations. Finally, all the bees were homeless and had to move on. Each group had been caught by surprise, believing their hive to be the true one destined to survive and bring in a new age. Each hive had failed to recognize that all trees fall eventually, and so it should finish its work and find another forest before it lost its tree. Each had failed to look further than its own hive and consider the effects of the tree, the soil and the rest of their ecology and its own survival.

From: The Sufi Book of Life
Art by: Lili Lovemonster

Circle of Life

Sometimes we forget that we live on a round planet. These amazing photoshopped images offer a lovely reminder that we're all in this together.

Wheel of Life

Wheel of Life, originally uploaded by Shirley Two Feathers.

A mandala for your coloring pleasure.
The image can be downloaded from flickr - just click on the link.

Have fun!

We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.

~Herman Melville

Wheel of Life Mandalas

Beautiful Wheel of Life Thanka paintings from Sari Magic.

Wheel Of Life

Paintings like this are usually found in the vestibule of Lamaist temples. It is said that the Buddha himself drew this diagram in the sand in order to explain to his disciples the Buddhist conception of life, death and rebirth.

The Wheel itself is held in the clutches of a demon, who symbolizes impermanence. In the hub of the wheel are a cock, a snake, and a pig, symbols of lust, anger and ignorance respectively, the three cardinal sins in Buddhism.

In the rim around this hub is a narrow band, one half showing the upward path leading to the superior worlds of rebirth, and the other showing the downward path leading to the inferior worlds of rebirth. Beyond this narrow band this Wheel is divided into five segments. These segments depict the different worlds of rebirth.

At the top left is the Region of the Gods and Asuras, and to the right, the Region of man. These are the superior worlds of rebirth. In the center below is the hell region, wherein Yama, the King of the dead, presides over the judgement. At the left is the Region of animals, and at the right, the Region of the tortured spirits. The last three regions are inferior worlds of rebirth.

In the outer rim are twelve scenes, which the Buddha called the usual nexus, the chain of cause and effect, or the reasons for transmigration. These symbolize the various stages through which man passes from birth, namely:

1. Ignorance
2. Conformations
3. Consciousness
4. Self-consciousness
5. Senses
6. Contact
7. Desire
8. Indulgence
9. Married life
10. Maturity
11. The birth of an heir
12. Decay and death

And then rebirth through countless existences. At each death man is reborn according to his Karma, into one or another of these six worlds, until he, like Buddha, through enlightenment reaches perfection and, no longer "bound to the wheel," passes on to Nirvana to become one with the Universal spirit.

The painting of the Wheel is very complex; the profound symbology must be carried out perfectly. The joys and punishments in the six regions of rebirth are vividly portrayed in miniature. In the outer rim the various incidents of the casual nexus are also represented in minute detail.