Dharmachakra
The First Turning
The wheel of the Buddhist teaching, its eight spokes numbering the Noble Eightfold Path of the first sermon.
The wheel belonged first to the chakravartin, the ideal wheel-turning monarch; Buddhism recast it as the wheel of the teaching and the Buddha as its turner rather than a king. His first sermon in the Deer Park at Sarnath is called the setting in motion of the wheel of dharma. It is among the oldest Buddhist symbols: in the aniconic art of Bharhut and Sanchi a wheel marked the Buddha's presence, before figural images appeared. Hub, spokes and rim are read as the three trainings: conduct, wisdom, and the concentration that holds the whole in motion. Eight spokes count the Noble Eightfold Path, though Ashoka's Sarnath capital of about 250 BCE bears twenty-four.
Light
Stands for a teaching set out as a path to be walked, and for practice kept in motion. A wheel rolls only with hub, spokes and rim intact: the three trainings hold together or not at all.
Shadow
The tradition's own caution is that the teaching is a raft for crossing, not a possession to carry. A wheel can be venerated as an emblem rather than walked as a path.
