The Gankyil (,[Source: dga' 'khyil (accessed: December 11, 2008)] ) or "wheel of joy" () is a symbol and ritual tool used in Tibetan Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism. It is composed of three (sometimes two or four) swirling and interconnected blades. The traditional spinning direction is clockwise (right turning), but the counter-clockwise ones are also common.
The gankyil as inner wheel of the dharmachakra is depicted on the Flag of Sikkim, Joseon, and is also depicted on the Flag of Tibet and Emblem of Tibet.
Exegesis
In addition to linking the gankyil with the "wish-fulfilling jewel" (Skt.
cintamani), Robert Beer makes the following connections:
The "victory" referred to above is symbolised by the dhvaja or "victory banner".
Wallace (2001: p. 77) identifies the ānandacakra with the heart of the "cosmic body" of which Mount Meru is the epicentre:
Associated triunes
Ground, path, and fruit
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"ground", "base" ()
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"path", "method" ()
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"fruit", "product" ()
Three humours of traditional Tibetan medicine
Attributes connected with the three humors (Sanskrit:
tridoshas, Tibetan:
nyi pa gsum):
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Desire (Tibetan: འདོད་ཆགས། ’dod chags) is aligned with the humor Wind (rlung, , Sanskrit: vata - "air and aether constitution")
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Hatred (Tibetan: ཞེ་སྡང་། zhe sdang) is aligned with the humor Bile (Tripa, mkhris pa, Sanskrit: pitta - "fire and water constitution")
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Ignorance (Tibetan: གཏི་མུག gti mug) is aligned with the humor Phlegm (Béken bad kan, Sanskrit: kapha - "earth and water constitution").
[Besch (2006).]
Study, reflection, and meditation
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Study (Tibetan: ཐོས་པ། thos + pa)
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Reflection (Tibetan: བསམ་པ། sam+ pa)
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Meditation (Tibetan: སྒོམ་པ། sgom pa)
These three aspects are the mūlaprajñā of the sādhanā of the prajnaparamita, the "pāramitā of wisdom". Hence, these three are related to, but distinct from, the Prajñāpāramitā that denotes a particular cycle of discourse in the Buddhist literature that relates to the doctrinal field (kṣetra[Southworth.]) of the second turning of the dharmacakra.
Mula dharmas of the path
The Dzogchen teachings focus on three terms:
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View (Tibetan: ལྟ་བ། lta-ba),
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Meditation (Tibetan: སྒོམ་པ། sgom pa),
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Action (Tibetan: སྤྱོད་པ། spyod-pa).
Triratna doctrine
The
Triratna, Triple Jewel or Three Gems are triunic are therefore represented by the Gankyil:
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Buddhahood (Tibetan: སངས་རྒྱས།, Sangye, Wyl. sangs rgyas)
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Dharma (Tibetan: ཆོས།, Cho; Wyl. chos)
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Sangha (Tibetan: དགེ་དུན།, Gendun; Wyl. dge 'dun)
Three Roots
The
Three Roots are:
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Guru (Tibetan: བླ་མ།, Wyl. bla ma)
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Yidam (Tibetan: ཡི་དམ།, Wyl. yi dam; Skt. istadevata)
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Dakini (Tibetan: མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ།, Khandroma; Wyl. mkha 'gro ma )
Three Higher Trainings
The three higher trainings (Tibetan:ལྷག་བའི་བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་, lhagpe labpa sum, or Wyl. bslab pa gsum)
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discipline (Tibetan: ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ།, Wyl. tshul khrims kyi bslab pa)
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meditation (Tibetan: ཏིང་ངེ་འཛན་གྱི་བསླབ་པ།, Wyl. ting nge 'dzin gyi bslab pa)
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wisdom (Tibetan: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་བསླབ་པ།, Wyl. shes rab kyi bslab pa )
Three Dharma Seals
The indivisible essence of the
dharma seals (ལྟ་བ་བཀའ་རྟགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་གསུམ།) is embodied and encoded within the Gankyil:
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Impermanence (Tibetan: འདུ་བྱེ་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་ཅིང་།)
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anatta (Tibetan: ཆོས་རྣམས་སྟོང་ཞིང་བདག་མེད་པ།)
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Nirvana (Tibetan: མྱང་ངན་འདས་པ་ཞི་བའོ།།)
Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma
As the inner wheel of the
Vajrayana Dharmacakra, the gankyil also represents the syncretic union and embodiment of
Gautama Buddha's Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. The
pedagogic upaya doctrine and classification of the "three turnings of the wheel" was first postulated by the
Yogacara school.
Trikaya doctrine
The gankyil is the energetic signature of the
Trikaya, realised through the transmutation of the obscurations forded by the
Three poisons (refer klesha) and therefore in the
Bhavachakra the Gankyil is an
aniconic depiction of the snake, boar and fowl. Gankyil is to
Dharmachakra, as still eye is to cyclone, as Bindu is to
Mandala. The Gankyil is the inner wheel of the
Vajrayana Dharmacakra (refer
Himalayas Ashtamangala).
The Gankyil is symbolic of the Trikaya doctrine of dharmakaya (Tibetan: ཆོས་སྐུ།, Wyl.Chos sku), sambhogakaya (Tibetan:ལོངས་སྐུ་ Wyl. longs sku) and nirmanakaya (Tibetan:སྤྲུལ་སྐུ། Wyl.sprul sku) and also of the Buddhist understanding of the interdependence of the Three Vajras: of mind, voice and body. The divisions of the teaching of Dzogchen are for the purposes of explanation only; just as the Gankyil divisions are understood to dissolve in the energetic whirl of the Wheel of Joy.
Three cycles of Nyingmapa Dzogchen
The Gankyil also embodies the three cycles of
Nyingma Dzogchen codified by Mañjuśrīmitra:
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Semde Tibetan:སེམས་སྡེ།
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Longdé Tibetan:ཀློང་སྡེ།
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Mengagde Tibetan:མན་ངག་སྡེ།
This classification determined the exposition of the Dzogchen teachings in the subsequent centuries.
Three Spheres
"Three spheres" (Sanskrit: trimandala; Tibetan: འཁོར་གསུམ།'khor gsum). The conceptualizations pertaining to:
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subject,
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object, and
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action
[Thub-bstan-chos-kyi-grags-pa, Chokyi Dragpa, Heidi I. Koppl, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche (2004). Uniting Wisdom and Compassion: Illuminating the thirty-seven practices of a bodhisattva. Wisdom Publications. . Source: [15] (accessed: February 4, 2009) p.202]
Sound, light and rays
The triunic continua of the esoteric Dzogchen doctrine of 'sound, light and rays' (སྒྲ་འོད་ཟེར་གསུམ། Wylie: sgra 'od zer gsum) is held within the energetic signature of the Gankyil. The doctrine of 'Sound, light and rays' is intimately connected with the Dzogchen teaching of the 'three aspects of the manifestation of energy'. Though thoroughly interpenetrating and , 'sound' may be understood to reside at the
heart, the 'mind'-wheel; 'light' at the
throat, the 'voice'-wheel; and 'rays' at the
head, the 'body'-wheel. Some Dzogchen lineages for various purposes, locate 'rays' at the Ah-wheel (for Five Pure Lights
pranayama) and 'light' at the Aum-wheel (for
rainbow body), and there are other enumerations.
Three lineages of Nyingmapa Dzogchen
The Gankyil also embodies the three tantric lineages as
Penor Rinpoche,
[Penor Rinpoche. (accessed: 1 February 2007)] a
, states:
According to the history of the origin of tantras there are three lineages:
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The Lineage of Buddha's Intention, which refers to the teachings of the Truth Body originating from the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, who is said to have taught tantras to an assembly of completely enlightened beings emanated from the Truth Body itself. Therefore, this level of teaching is considered as being completely beyond the reach of ordinary human beings.
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The Lineage of the Knowledge Holders corresponds to the teachings of the Enjoyment Body originating from Vajrasattva and Vajrapani, whose human lineage begins with Garab Dorje of the Ögyan Dakini land. From him the lineage passed to Manjushrimitra, Shrisimha and then to Guru Rinpoche, Jnanasutra, Vimalamitra and Vairochana who disseminated it in Tibet.
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Lastly, the Human Whispered Lineage corresponds to the teachings of the Emanation Body, originating from the Five Buddha Families. They were passed on to Shrisimha, who transmitted them to Guru Rinpoche, who in giving them to Vimalamitra started the lineage which has continued in Tibet until the present day.
Three aspects of energy in Dzogchen
The Gankyil also embodies the energy manifested in the three aspects that yield the energetic
emergence[For a sound introduction to "emergence" refer: Corning, Peter A. (2002). The Re-emergence of "Emergence": A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory. Institute For the Study of Complex Systems. NB: initially published in and © by Complexity (2002) 7(6): pp.18-30. Source: (accessed: February 5, 2008)] (Tibetan: རང་བྱུན།
rang byung) of phenomena ( Tibetan: ཆོས་ Wylie: "chos" Sanskrit:
dharmas) and sentient beings (Tibetan: ཡིད་ཅན།
yid can):
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dang (གདངས། Wylie: gDangs), this is an infinite and formless level of compassionate energy and reflective capacity, it is "an awareness free from any restrictions and as an energy free from any limits or form."
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rolpa (རོལ་པ། Wylie: Rol-pa). These are the manifestations which appear to be internal to the individual (such as when a crystal ball seems to reflect something inside itself).
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tsal (རྩལ། Wylie: rTsal, is "the manifestation of the energy of the individual him or herself, as an apparently 'external' world," though this apparent externality is only just "a manifestation of our own energy, at the level of Tsal." This is explained through the use of a crystal prism which reflects and refracts white light into various other forms of light.
Though not discrete correlates, dang equates to dharmakaya; rolpa to sambhogakaya; and tsal to nirmanakaya.
In Bon
Three Treasures of Yungdrung Bon
In
Bon, the gankyil denotes the three principal terma cycles of Yungdrung Bon: the Northern Treasure (), the Central Treasure () and the Southern Treasure ().
[M. Alejandro Chaoul-Reich (2000). "Bön Monasticism". Cited in: Will Johnston (author, editor) (2000). Encyclopedia of monasticism, Volume 1. Taylor & Francis. , . Source: [21] (accessed: Saturday April 24, 2010), p.171] The Northern Treasure is compiled from texts revealed in
Zhangzhung and northern Tibet, the Southern Treasure from texts revealed in
Bhutan and southern Tibet, and the Central Treasure from texts revealed in Ü-Tsang near
Samye.
The gankyil is the central part of the shang (Tibetan: gchang), a traditional ritual tool and instrument of the Bönpo shaman.
See also
Citations
Works cited
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Robert Beer (2003). The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Serindia Publications. Source: [22] (accessed: December 7, 2007)
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Besch, {Nils} Florian (2006). Tibetan Medicine Off the Roads: Modernizing the Work of the Amchi in Spiti. Source: [23] (accessed: February 11, 2008)
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Günther, Herbert (undated). Three, Two, Five. (accessed: April 30, 2007)
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Ingersoll, Ernest (1928). Dragons and Dragon Lore. [24] (accessed: June 12, 2008)\*Alfred Kazin (1946). The Portable Blake. (Selected and arranged with an introduction by Alfred Kazin.) New York: The Viking Press.
-
.
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Nalimov, V. V. (1982). Realms of the Unconscious: The Enchanted Frontier. University Park, PA: ISI Press.
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Penor Rinpoche (undated). The school of Nyingma thought [25] (accessed: June 12, 2008)
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Southworth, Franklink C. (2005? forthcoming). Proto-Dravidian Agriculture. Source: [26] (accessed: February 10, 2008)
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Van Schaik, Sam (2004). Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Methods of Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig. Wisdom Publications. . Source: [27] (accessed: February 2, 2008)
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Wayman, Alex (?) A Problem of 'Synonyms' in the Tibetan Language: Bsgom pa and Goms pa. Source: to (accessed: February 10, 2008) NB: published in the Journal of the Tibet Society.
External links
