The Eight Spokes of the Dharmachakra
Soulkind Article #4
The Wheel of Turning
The Dharmachakra, also known as the Wheel of Dharma, is one of the core symbols of Buddhism. It represents both the teachings of the Buddha and the path of practice that leads to awakening. The eight spokes of the wheel stand for the Noble Eightfold Path, a framework for living that addresses the root of suffering and points toward liberation.
When the Buddha gave his first teaching after enlightenment, it was called “setting in motion the Wheel of Dharma.” This wasn’t just a metaphor as it marked the beginning of a living tradition, a turning point where the insight into the nature of reality was shared and put into motion. The wheel turns with each person's effort to understand and apply these teachings in their own life.
Similar to my previous article on the Nine Angles of the Enneagram, we will be focusing on rediscovering the Eightfold Path, not as a straight line or a ladder of steps, but as a set of eight interconnected practices highlighting ways of aligning thought, speech, action, and awareness with the truth of things. Taken together, they work like spokes of a wheel, each supporting and balancing the others which keep together the shape of the wheel.
The Circle and the Center
The structure of the Dharmachakra is a circle with a central hub, an outer rim, and eight spokes connecting the two. It’s more than a symbol, it’s a visual map of the spiritual path. The wheel turns, but its center remains still. This is the key to its meaning.
The circle represents the cyclical nature of existence which comes in the form of birth and death, action and consequence, suffering and craving, what Buddhism calls samsara. It’s the pattern we’re caught in when we move through life without awareness. The outer rim, always turning, reflects this restless movement. But at the center of the wheel is stillness. That center is called nirvana, which is the awakening point, the end of suffering, the reality untouched by change. The Eightfold Path leads not away from the circle, but toward that unmoving center.
The spokes of the wheel connect movement to stillness. Each spoke is a path of alignment, a way of returning from distortion to balance. They’re not steps to be climbed in sequence, but facets of a single structure. You don’t complete one before moving on to the next. Instead, they work together, each reinforcing the others. The path isn’t linear; it’s radial.
In this way, the Dharmachakra isn’t just a religious icon. It’s a symbolic diagram of consciousness itself. The center is source-awareness, the still point beneath identity, thought, and time. The Eightfold Path is the means of realigning the psyche with that deeper axis. To follow the path is to move inward, not to escape the world, but to encounter it from the place of clarity at the center.
The Eight Spokes as Vectors of Right Alignment
1. Right View (Samma Ditthi) The Eye of Clarity
Right View is the foundation of the Eightfold Path. It begins with seeing things as they actually are, not through the lens of opinion, projection, or habit, but through direct insight. At its core, Right View means understanding the nature of suffering, its cause, its end, and the path that leads to its end. This is the Four Noble Truths not as a belief system, but as a clear look at the structure of experience.
To see rightly is not just to agree with certain teachings; it's to undergo a shift in perception. It’s recognizing that everything is impermanent, that clinging creates suffering, and that there is no fixed self at the center of experience. This changes how we relate to the world. It dissolves the illusion of permanence and control, opening space for clarity and compassion.
In symbolic terms, Right View is the eye of the wheel, symbolizing the capacity to see beyond surface appearances. This is done by way of cultivating awareness, studying diligently, and examining experience honestly.
In soulkind semiotics, this corresponds to epistemological purification: the cleansing of perception. It's not just about learning the right concepts, it's also about unlearning the distortions we’ve built around identity, value, and meaning. Right View isn’t the end of confusion, but the beginning of seeing through it.
2. Right Intention (Samma Sankappa) The Trajectory of Mind
Right Intention is the inner compass behind our actions. Where Right View clarifies how we see, Right Intention addresses why we move and the motivations that shape thought, speech, and behavior. It asks: What drives you? What are you aiming toward beneath the surface?
Buddhism identifies three core intentions that support awakening: renunciation (letting go of craving), goodwill (non-harming), and harmlessness (non-aggression). These aren’t abstract ideals. They’re directional forces that either steer the psyche toward clarity or further entangle it in distortion. Right Intention is about choosing to align with intentions that liberate rather than bind.
In symbolic terms, this is the axis of becoming, the point where thought begins to crystallize into form. Every action begins in the mind, and the quality of that seed determines the fruit. Right Intention is the quiet fork in the road that most people never notice, the place where habit can be interrupted and redirected.
In soulkind semiotics, this is the inner architecture of will. Intention isn’t passive. It’s creative. It sets a trajectory not just in behavior but in consciousness itself. The patterns we feed internally shape the symbolic landscape we move through. Right Intention realigns that process at the root.
3. Right Speech (Samma Vaca) The Carrier of Logos
Right Speech brings the path into the world through language. It’s the discipline of speaking truthfully, purposefully, and without harm. In a tradition that sees karma as shaped by intention and action, speech carries real weight. Words are not just sounds, for they shape minds, relationships, and reality itself.
The Buddha outlined four types of speech to avoid: lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle chatter. These aren't arbitrary moral rules, these types of speech are the source of distortion in the field of communication and they reinforce delusion. Each time we speak carelessly or with harmful intent, we reinforce patterns of separation, confusion, and ego-protection. Right Speech works in the opposite direction. It brings clarity, honesty, and connection back into language.
In symbolic terms, speech is the carrier of meaning and the outward vibration of inner thought. Right Speech requires awareness not only of what we say, but why and how we say it. Are we trying to control, impress, or wound? Or are we speaking from a place of clarity and care?
In soulkind semiotics, Right Speech reflects how sound acts as a medium of transmission. It reveals, conceals, or distorts. Words are never neutral. They either align with truth or twist it. Silence, too, becomes part of this path as the choice not to speak can also be a form of Right Speech when it protects or preserves clarity.
4. Right Action (Samma Kammanta) The Axis of Integrity
Right Action brings the path into behavior. It’s about how we move through the world, the choices we make with our bodies, the impact we have on others, and the way we carry our values into visible form. Where Right Speech governs the truth in our words, Right Action addresses the truth in our conduct.
The Buddha emphasized three core precepts under Right Action: not killing, not stealing, and not engaging in sexual misconduct. These guidelines aren’t about moral rigidity, but more about aligning behavior with non-harm. Right Action isn’t just refraining from violence; it’s choosing actions that support life, dignity, and trust. It’s a commitment to act in ways that reduce suffering, both for ourselves and others.
In symbolic terms, action is the interface between the inner and outer worlds. It's how intention takes shape. Each act becomes an imprint, a karmic echo, that reinforces patterns or breaks them. Right Action is not about perfection, it’s about integrity. About checking if our movements in the world match what we know to be true.
In soulkind semiotics, Right Action is energetic alignment: it’s when behavior reflects a psyche that’s grounded in clarity rather than confusion. This spoke also reminds us that ethics is not separate from insight. How we act reveals how we see. A distorted view leads to harmful actions, even if unintentional. But with clear view and intention, our actions begin to harmonize and become coherent.
5. Right Livelihood (Samma Ajiva) The Spirit of Coherence
Right Livelihood is about how we make our living, how we survive, contribute, and participate in society. It asks a basic but often overlooked question: Does the way you earn support or obstruct your path?
The Buddha taught that certain kinds of work are incompatible with the path to liberation. These include trades that involve killing, exploitation, deceit, or harm. Work that causes harm to others, distorts truth, or feeds greed pulls the mind away from clarity and reinforces suffering.
In symbolic terms, livelihood represents the flow of energy between self and system, how we exchange value, sustain life, and shape the collective field. Right Livelihood doesn’t always mean quitting your job or becoming a monk. It means examining the nature of your work: What are you contributing to? What are you reinforcing? And can you carry your practice into the space where you earn, create, and serve?
In soulkind semiotics, this is a key question of our environs: what kind of energy we feed into the world, and what kind of structure it feeds back into us. When livelihood is exploitative, it reinforces delusion. When it is aligned, it becomes part of our spiritual discipline. Right Livelihood is about terrestrial coherence, making sure the way we survive doesn’t contradict the truth we’re trying to live by.
6. Right Effort (Samma Vayama) The Flame of Will
Right Effort is the intentional application of energy toward inner transformation. It’s not about striving or force, but about disciplined engagement, choosing to direct your will toward what liberates rather than what entangles. In simple terms, it’s the effort put into uprooting what harms and cultivating what heals.
The Buddha described Right Effort in four aspects:
Preventing unwholesome states from arising
Abandoning unwholesome states that have arisen
Cultivating wholesome states that have not yet arisen
Sustaining and deepening wholesome states already present
This is a clear formula for inner work. It recognizes that the mind is not neutral, it’s always moving, always shaping experience. Right Effort is the act of steering that movement, not through repression, but through awareness and intention. It’s the flame that fuels the path.
In symbolic terms, this is the spoke of inner alchemy. Right Effort is to take responsibility for the content of your mind. It’s the choice to be an active participant in your own unfolding, to feed the fire that transforms, rather than the habits that keep you circling in confusion.
In soulkind semiotics, Right Effort is the transmutation of psychic material by converting reactivity into clarity, distraction into focus, apathy into engagement. It’s the process of purification through sustained direction. Right Effort also counters two extremes: laziness and overexertion. It’s the middle path as a steady, consistent effort that doesn’t burn out or drift into passivity.
7. Right Mindfulness (Samma Sati) The Mirror of Self
Right Mindfulness is the practice of sustained awareness through clear, steady, non-reactive attention to what is happening in the present moment. It’s not passive observation, nor is it mental analysis. It’s a grounded, embodied presence that sees without clinging and knows without distortion.
The Buddha described mindfulness in terms of four domains: body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena. Together, these form a complete map of experience. Mindfulness moves through each of these layers, noticing what arises, how it changes, and what it leads to. It tracks reality in real time, without needing to fix, escape, or explain it.
In symbolic terms, mindfulness is the mirror, it reflects whatever appears, exactly as it is, without exaggeration or suppression. Right Mindfulness allows you to see how suffering begins not as an abstract idea, but as a moment-to-moment process. You see the craving before it grips you. You see the anger before it explodes. You see the story before it becomes a cage. And in that seeing, you gain the space to respond instead of react.
In soulkind semiotics, this is the symbolic function of awareness itself: the ability to witness patterns as they arise, rather than becoming entangled in them. Right Mindfulness turns experience into information, and information into insight. What makes this “right” rather than just generic awareness is its orientation. Right Mindfulness is rooted in clarity and directed toward liberation. It watches the mind not out of curiosity or self-interest, but out of a commitment to truth. It is mindfulness with intention, the steady gaze that helps unravel delusion at the root.
8. Right Concentration (Samma Samadhi) The Eternity of Reality
Right Concentration is the practice of deep, unified attention through gathering of the mind into stillness and clarity. It is about cultivating a stable, focused awareness that is no longer scattered or pulled by distraction. It’s the culmination of the Eightfold Path, not in the sense of being last, but as the point where all other spokes converge.
In meditation, Right Concentration means sustaining attention on a single object (whether it be the breath, a sensation or a mantra) until the mind settles, distractions fall away, and a stillness emerges. This isn’t forced focus. It’s a natural absorption that arises when the conditions are right, when intention, effort, and mindfulness have done their work.
In symbolic terms, this is the axis of the wheel, the unmoving center. Right Concentration isn’t just about achieving altered states. It’s about developing the capacity to stay present, to go deep, and to remain rooted in awareness even when the mind wants to wander.
In soulkind semiotics, Right Concentration is the descent into the source, the direct experience of consciousness beyond mental activity. Right Concentration doesn’t bypass reality, it sharpens our ability to see it. A concentrated mind is capable of real insight. It’s not swayed by every thought, mood, or impulse. It can hold steady and in that steadiness, truth becomes visible.
The Turning and the Stillness
The Eightfold Path is often imagined as a process, something to move through, to practice, to achieve. But like the Dharmachakra itself, it holds a deeper paradox: it turns, and yet it rests. Each spoke points outward in motion, yet also inward toward stillness. This is the tension at the heart of the Eightfold Path, highlighting the union of effort and surrender, of becoming and being.
The path requires movement: discipline, clarity, choice. You train perception, align intention, speak truth, act with care, earn with integrity, engage with effort, witness with mindfulness, and concentrate the mind. These are not passive states. They demand presence, and they shape you through participation.
The path also requires stillness: at the center of this wheel is what doesn’t move, the still point. The unconditioned. The awareness that doesn’t grasp, push, or divide. All the effort aims to reveal what was never absent: the space in which experience unfolds, untouched by it. Liberation is not at the end of the wheel’s turning, it is in its center.
Right View dismantles delusion. Right Intention disarms craving. Right Speech and Right Action restore coherence. Right Livelihood integrates the sacred with the mundane. Right Effort clears the ground. Right Mindfulness sees clearly. Right Concentration brings you home.
The Dharma is both movement and rest. It is the wheel that turns the world, and the hub that never turns. To walk the Eightfold Path is to live within that paradox, to act without grasping, to strive without strain, to awaken while still within the dream.
The Wheel turns with each Spoke. And in its Center, you are still.