Wheel of Life and Others

The round thing is the wheel showing the various fates of life. It’s held by a big demon guy, who looks pretty threatening. The other shots are both — I think, it’s been more than two weeks — from the “levels of creation” panel that you’ll see in a more complete shot shortly. One shows the Buddha, at the highest level of creation; the other shows a wise king who presumably rules over the levels of creation. I hope Professor Dobbins, who taught me Chinese Religion & Philosophy back at Oberlin, will agree when I say that I found this “wise king” concept to be rather un-Buddhist, but rather a quintessentially Chinese syncretism of Confucianism into Buddhism.