The chariot being the first and fundamental human vehicle, 車 is used in Japanese for every kind of wheeled vehicle. The fourfold division is that of the material world – its four directions, four elements, four seasons.Īdd the World Axis (axle) and the upper and lower wheels, and we have the chariot: 車. This is the simplest possible form of the symbolism that is elaborated on a chessboard or a go-board. The chessboard is called kshatra because it represents the world in its black/white duality – the field on which the conflict of light and darkness takes place. The world itself is often described as a “field” ( kshatra in Sanskrit). Through its center passes the World Axis with the two wheels as the dual principles that lie “above” and “below” the world.

The body of the vehicle is the world, or the human body (these two “vehicles of manifestation” are called the macrocosm and the microcosm – the great world and the little world – in traditional Western thought). The design of the chariot itself reflects this. The chariot is the world, or human body, and within it are the Divine Principle (Krishna) and the human principle (Arjuna). In the Bhagavad Gita, the entire teaching of the Scripture is given while Krishna and Arjuna are in the chariot. The first non-human-powered vehicle was the chariot, and, as we would expect, the chariot is deeply rooted in traditional symbolism. Why two? Because we can use that heavenly power for good or evil, so even the fire in us is expressed in two flames, continuing to express our “forked” duality. Thus the kanji symbol fire (ka) shows the human being and the divine flames. When wood is burned, it releases that warmth and light in the form of fire.īut the highest fire – the earthly avatar of the Heavenly Sun – is the Solar principle in each human being – the Divine Spark – 火. Wood burns because it was fed for years on the warmth and light of the sun. All fire comes from the Sun in traditional thought. So when we want to depict fire, we think of it in this most fundamental sense – as the Solar principle on earth. Humanity also has within it the Divine Fire, the spark of life. When they hold them out wide they are saying something is this big. So the fork 人expresses what is essential to humanity. And we are always choosing between the two.

Or to put it in Buddhist terms we have both a samsaric nature and a Buddha-nature.

We have both a Heavenly and an earthly nature. Humanity is upright and stands on two legs rather than four.īeing “between earth and heaven” humanity is inherently dual. The being that stands at the Axis of the World. Why is the fork the essential feature of humanity? Humanity is, in traditional thought, the center of the Middle Kingdom – the creature that links earth and heaven. Just, as Shakespeare said, the forked animal. This is exactly what the kanji for a person 人 ( hito on its own, jin/ nin in combination) shows. King Lear was in line with tradition when he called humanity a “forked animal”. In kanji symbolism, fire and movement, life and humanity are depicted in terms of the ancient metaphysical thinking common to all traditional civilizations. If we look at kanji in the light of traditional philosophy, they make a lot more sense.

Conji symbols