Concept
Dharmachakra
Overview
The dharmachakra (Sanskrit: धर्मचक्र, Pali: dhammacakka) or wheel of dharma is a symbol used in the Dharmic religions. It has a widespread use in Buddhism. In Hinduism, the symbol is particularly used in places that underwent religious transformation. The symbol also finds its usage in modern India.
Historically, the dharmachakra was often used as a decoration in East Asian statues and inscriptions, beginning with the earliest period of East Asian culture to the present. It remains a major symbol of the Buddhist religion today.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The circle of sacred objects cannot be determined, then, once for all. Its extent varies infinitely, according to the different religions. That is how Buddhism is a religion: in default of gods, it admits the existence of sacred things, namely, the four noble truths and the practices derived from them.[65]
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
States what Dharmachakra is.
As Buddha descended from his position aloft in the Trayastrims'as heaven, when he was coming down, there were made to appear three flights of precious steps. Buddha was on the middle flight, the steps of which were composed of the seven precious substances.
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Dharmachakra; the term itself is not named.
Hence it is that these two world religions are not merely expressions of a striving for a universally valid religious and moral ideal, in the sense in which such a striving is common to mankind as a whole; it should rather be emphasized that they reflect the essentially different forms which this striving has assumed within humanity. Buddhism, in its fundamental views, represents the highest expression to which the…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Close in meaning to Dharmachakra; the term itself is not named.
Philosophers who discussed Dharmachakra
Related ideas
- Ṛta
- Prajñā (Buddhism)
- Ashoka
- Hinduism
- Dharma (Jainism)
- India
- Indian religions
- Samadhi
- Vedas
- Jainism
- Satya
- Saṃsāra
- Buddhahood
- Cosmology
- Vishnu
- Kamakura period
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Occult
- Sarnath
- Taxila
- Mundaka Upanishad
- Qing dynasty
- Sanskrit
- Ahimsa
Place in the tradition
Part of Dharma.