136 
L. A. Waddell —Buddhist Pictorial Wheel of Life. [No. 3, 
figure of Chenresi (Skt. AvaloJcita) the patron god of Tibet and in¬ 
carnate in the Dalai Lama—who has also in the six thubas a presiding 
representative in each of the worlds of re-birth. These two external 
figures as well as the thubas are absent from the ‘ old ’ style of the 
picture. 
The three original sins or ‘ chief Causes of Demerit ’ are depicted 
as (1) a pig which has hold of the tail of (2) a 
The 3 Oiiginal Sins. coc j c -which has hold of the tail of (3) a snake 
which in its turn, has hold of the pig’s tail. The triad thus form a circle 
which revolves continuously around the world. The pig* symbolizes 
Ignorance, the cock animal Desire or Lust, and the snake Anger or 
Hate.* These are at the core of re-birth, and if these three sins be 
avoided or overcome then virtue results and merit is accumulated. 
The causes of re-birth, or Niddna (Tib. ten-del) f are categorically 
given as twelve in the form of a linked chain, 
b^ttf causes re " the result of the first cause being the cause of 
the second and so on, the ultimate result being 
suffering. In isolated fashion each ‘ cause ’ is also considered as a veil 
© 
which hides the truth. 
The Illustrations which metaphorically symbolize these causes, 
and their paraphrase according to the tradi- 
The illustrations of tional interpretation of the lamas, which must 
these causes. prove so valuable to students of Buddhist 
philosophy, are the following :— 
I. A blind old woman groping her way = Ma-rig-pa or ‘ want of 
knowledge’ (Skt. Avidyd ) which is the cardinal cause of 
existence and misery, leading people to mistake for happi¬ 
ness the miseries of existence. In the ‘ old ’ style a man is 
figured leading the blind woman. 
# These three sins are thus graphically described by Sir Edwin Arnold in The 
Light of Asia, p. 164 :— 
“ Patigha — Hate— 
“ With serpents coiled about her waist, which suck 
“ Poisonous milk from both her hanging dugs 
“ And with her curses mix their angry hiss. 
“ Then followed Ruparaga — Lust of days— 
“ The sensual sin which out of greed for life. 
“ Forgets to live ; and Lust of Fame * * * (the) Fiend of Pride 
###### And —Ignorance, the Dam 
“ Of Fear and wrong, Avidya hideous hag 
“ Whose footsteps left the midnight darker.” 
f Eten-hbrel I 
