140 
L. A. Waddell —Buddhist Pictorial Wheel of Life. [No. 3, 
Determination 
place of rebirth. 
of 
by the individual during life ; and the demon by black balls exposes 
the sins.* These are weighed one against the other in scales to ascer¬ 
tain which preponderates, and the result is called out to the judge.f 
There is also a record of the deeds in the book named las-gya de. 
But this impartial judge does not implicitly trust his subordinates. 
He consults a divine mirror,J which he holds in his left hand, and in 
which the naked soul and all its past deeds, good and bad, are reflected, 
and he gives judgment accordingly. 
If the virtues are in excess of the sins then the soul is reborn in 
one or other of the first three forms : as a god 
if the virtue be of the first degree, as an un¬ 
godly spirit if the virtue be of the second 
degree, and as a human being if the virtue is of the lowest order. 
While those whose sins preponderate are reborn in one or other of the 
last three forms, the most wicked going to hell and the least wicked to 
the beasts. 
The details of these several regions and their inhabitants accord- 
ins; to Tibetan books and traditions are as follow :— 
I. The Gods or IjHA. These are the gods of Hindu mythology 
rendered finite and subject to the general law 
The Gods. G f me tempsychosis. Their life is the longest 
and most blissful of all the six states of being, but they too must die 
and be reborn in hell or another of the six regions. Their abode is an 
Olympus on the summit of Mount Ri-rab (Skt. Meru) an invisible 
mountain-heaven in the centre of the universe according to Hindu and 
Buddhist cosmography. 
The atmosphere of this region is golden yellow. The picture of 
the region of the gods pourtrays the following states :— 
1. Godly Birth. The god is born at once fully developed within 
a halo of glory from a lotus flower, and is provided with the special 
attributes of a god,—the oriental symbol of immaterial birth— viz., 
(1) a lotus footstool, (2) splendid dress and ornaments, (3) goddess 
companions, (4) a pag-sam-shing (Skt. Kalpataru)§ or wish granting 
tree which instantly yields any fruit or food wished for, and bends 
# This demon is more powerful than the good angel; and to indicate this and 
his knowledge of futurity the demon is given the 3rd eye—the eye of fore-know¬ 
ledge. 
f A similar ordeal by scales is a part of the creed of Muhammadans. Washing¬ 
ton Irving’s Life of Mahomet, p. 286. 
J The las-kyi melong or ‘ mirror of deeds. 
§ The Wish-granting tree of Indra’s heaven is described in the 45th Section of 
the S'ilpa B'astra. 
