Wheel of Life

[tEfugleskremmel]

Hello all, I have been a visitor of this forum for some time now, and due to not getting an activation email for the account I'd attempted to make, I have been reduced to making this one. With that out of the way, I have quite an interesting tidbit of info regarding something I found within Buried for my first post. Even though it is something found within that map, it does pertain to the storyline on the whole therefore why I am posting it here. Here goes.

As I was searching one of the book shelves in the haunted house on Buried for anything of interest besides the titles that give us a rough date, there was one title that caught my eye in particular. The book was titled "Wheel of Life". I decided to do a search on Wikipedia to determine whether it was fiction/non-fiction. What I found was far more interesting. I will provide the link to the full page at the bottom for those interested on the full subject. What follows is the information that jumped right off the page. I will include images when I can size them properly as I am currently doing this on an iPad.

"The bhavacakra (Sanskrit; Pali: bhavacakka; Tibetan: srid pa'i 'khor lo) is a symbolic representation of samsara (or cyclic existence) found on the outside walls of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indo-Tibetan region. In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, it is believed that the drawing was designed by the Buddha himself in order to help ordinary people understand the Buddhist teachings.

The bhavacakra is popularly referred to as the wheel of life. This term is also translated as wheel of cyclic existence or wheel of becoming."

Right off the bat we have the very obvious throw to the events in zombies with the "cyclic existence" as well as a reference to Buddha who was a feature in Die Rise. Oh but trust me, it gets better...

"The images in the hub of the wheel represent the three poisons of ignorance, attachment and aversion.

The second layer represents karma.

The third layer represents the six realms of samsara.

The fourth layer represents the twelve links of dependent origination.

The fierce figure holding the wheel represents impermanence.

The moon above the wheel represents liberation from samsara or cyclic existence.

The Buddha pointing to the moon indicates that liberation is possible.

Symbolically, the three inner circles, moving from the center outward, show that the three poisons of ignorance, attachment, and aversion give rise to positive and negative actions; these actions and their results are called karma.

Karma in turn gives rise to the six realms, which represent the different types of suffering within samsara.

The fourth and outer layer of the wheel symbolizes the twelve links of dependent origination; these links indicate how the sources of suffering—the three poisons and karma—produce lives within cyclic existence.

The fierce being holding the wheel represents impermanence; this symbolizes that the entire process of samsara or cyclic existence is impermanent, transient, constantly changing. The moon above the wheel indicates liberation. The Buddha is pointing to the moon, indicating that liberation from samsara is possible."

Incredible stuff here. We have references to the time loops our current foursome appear to be caught in. As well as not so subtle references to the Moon. Impermanence is the Buddhist notion that all of conditioned existence, without exception, is in a constant state of flux. But back to the Moon stuff here. Given that both sides of the Buried egg have both been revealed I think it's fair to say for the time being that Richtofen (who is on the Moon) is our characters liberation from their own samsara, or cyclic existence.

"Second layer: karma

The second layer of the wheel shows two-half circles:

One half-circle (usually light) shows contented people moving upwards to higher states, possibly to the higher realms.

The other half-circle (usually dark) shows people in a miserable state being led downwards to lower states, possibly to the lower realms."

Sound like what we've been seeing with these four characters.

There is still so so much more in this topic, which is why I will provide the link. There is one more thing I will share here though, and I do believe it has so pertinence to our new friend in Buried.

"Hungry ghost realm: hungry ghosts suffer from extreme hunger and thirst. They wander constantly in search of food and drink, only to be miserably frustrated any time they come close to actually getting what they want. For example, they see a stream of pure, clear water in the distance, but by the time the get there the stream has dried up. Hungry ghosts have huge bellies and long thin necks. On the rare occasions that they do manage to find something to eat or drink, the food or water burns their neck as it goes down to their belly, causing them intense agony."

This is from the third layer of the wheel which is The Six Realms of Samsara. While some of it is different, there is no denying that this can be associated with "Huckleberry" or whatever you want to call him.

Please feel free to discuss. I currently do not have an image for the book itself in game, however, just go into theatre and have a look for yourself. I found it on the bookshelf by double tap in the mansion. Once again, here is the link to the page for further reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra

[Rissole25]

First off, I just wanna say welcome to CoDz! You have a very unique username, so I am going to call you Skremmel or just Skrem for short

I noticed straight off the bat from the wikipedia page, that nearly all of the Six Realms seem to directly relate to Zombies!

Demi-god realm: Samantha, Richtofen or Maxis fit into this role. Vril-Ya even perhaps?

Human realm: Our beloved characters we play and interact as/with.

Hungry ghost realm: Hillbilly, Zombies possibly. Boss Zombies like George, Brutus and the Thief, since they all have that one objective that they can never get, but sometimes do occasionally.

Hell realm: The four mobsters, possibly even where Samantha is right now. Zombies could fit here as well, along with the bosses above ^

Now Gold realm I'm not sure. Possibly Richtofen after his Buried egg, or Maxis after his Buried egg, since they seemingly become a whole lot stronger than what they previously were. The Announcer in MOTD (Lucifer possibly?).

Animal realm I could see as the zombies.

But yeah, those Six Realms definitely stood out to me! The six negative emotions with each one definitely work as well.

Just adding onto the karma concept, that also could revolve around the Mob of the Dead characters. Karma for their sins, which I think they actually mention.

Very nice first post! I do think this is relevant, and I also think there is still much more to learn from it. Nice job Skrem. :)

[tEfugleskremmel]

Haha, thank you sir. This was a very surprising find in the map for me. As for the user name, it is just Norwegian for my gamer tag. As I said, I'd tried to make an account using my GT and primary email. For some reason, I never got the confirmation email. So I tried again, it said both the username and email were already in use, hence the translation....that way, I'd technically get to use my GT anyways 8-) so yeah, just call me scarecrow.

The more I read on the wiki page, the more I found relevant to the story. I just picked the most striking ones to share here. It's great that the Jungle Book gives us a rough date to work with on the map, but this sheds so much more light on the storyline. There's still a few books on the shelves that I can't make the titles out on. Not to mention all of the photos around the map, particularly the ones of the two men behind the witness box in the courthouse (and other locations). I tried seeing if they were US presidents, but neither strongly resemble any. I will check out governors and senators after I've actually slept.