THE EIGHT-LIMBED WHEEL (VITRUVIAN BUDDHA). Color pencil and gold ink on black paper. Buddhism is called the Noble Eightfold Path, Arya Ashtanga Marga in Sanskrit. Interestingly, the term ashtanga is usually translated as “eightfold,” which is perfectly correct, but it can also translate as “eight-limbed.” Yoga practitioners will know the term in another context, as Ashtanga Yoga–“eight-limbed yoga”–a style popularized by K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India, at least nominally based on the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.
Drawing on (literally) Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, here the Buddha is superimposed upon the eight-spoked Dharma wheel. Each spoke features both the Sanskrit text for the particular limb, along with a Buddhist symbol intended as a mnemonic. The eight limbs thus include:
- Samyag drishti, Wise Vision, represented by the Eyes of the Buddha;
- Samyak sankalpa, Wise Intention, a lotus bud;
- Samyak vach, Wise Voice, a conch;
- Samyak karmanta, Wise Action, the Buddha’s footprints;
- Samyak ajiva, Wise Sustenance, a bee gathering pollen;
- Samyak vyayama, Wise Exertion, the eternal flame;
- Samyak smriti, Wise Recollection, mala beads; and
- Samyak samadhi, Wise Absorption, a Dharma wheel.
THE FELL AND THE FAE 