has old age and death. Though
the chain of causation treats of a human life, it never speaks of a
person being born or growing old and Buddhaghosa[462] observes that the
Wheel of existence is without known beginning, without a personal cause
or passive recipient and empty with a twelvefold emptiness. It has no
external cause such as Brahma or any deity "and is also wanting in any
ego passively recipient of happiness and misery."

The twelve Nidanas have passed into Buddhist art as the Wheel of Life.
An ancient example of this has been discovered in the frescoes of Ajanta
and modern diagrams, which represent the explanations current in
mediaeval India, are still to be found in Tibet and Japan[463]. In the
nave of the wheel are three female figures signifying passion, hatred
and folly and in the spaces between the spokes are scenes depicting the
phases of human life: round the felly runs a series of pictures
representing the twelve links of the chain. The first two links are
represented by a blind man or blind camel and by a potter making pots.
The third, or consciousness, is an ape. Some have thought that this
figure represents the evolution of mind, which begins to show itself in
animals and is perfected in man. It may however refer to a simile found
in the Pitakas[464] where the restless, changeable mind is compared to a
monkey jumping about in a tree.

5

We have now examined three of the four Truths, for the Chain of
Causation in its positive form gives us the origin of suffering and in
its negative form the facts as to the extinction of suffering: it
teaches that as its links are broken suffering disappears. The fourth
truth, or the way which leads to the extinction of suffering, gives
practical directions to this effect. The way is the Noble Eightfold Path
consisting of: right views, right aspirations, right speech, right
conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right
rapture. This formula is comparable not with the Decalogue, to which
correspond the precepts for monks and laymen, but rather with the
Beatitudes. It contains no commands or prohibitions but in the simplest
language indicates the spirit that leads to emancipation. It breathes an
air of noble freedom. It says nothing about laws and rites: it simply
states that the way to be happy is to have a good heart and mind, taking
shape in good deeds and at last finding expression and fulfilment in the
rapture of ecstasy. We may think the