User:Dorje108/Samsara

For other uses, see Samsara (disambiguation).

Translations of saṃsāra
English	conditioned existence, cyclic existence, cycle of existence, uncontrollably recurring rebirth, wheel of suffering
Sanskrit	saṃsāra, sangsara (Dev: संसार)
Pali	saṃsāra
Burmese	သံသရာ (MLCTS: θàɴðajà)
Chinese	生死, 輪迴, 流轉 (Pinyin: shēngsǐ, lúnhuí, liúzhuǎn)
Japanese	輪廻 (Rōmaji: rinne)
Korean	윤회, 생사유전 (RR: Yunhoi, Saengsayujeon)
Mongolian	orchilong
Tibetan	འཁོར་བ་ (khor ba)
Thai	วัฏสงสาร
Vietnamese	Luân hồi
Glossary of Buddhism

Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) is a Buddhist term that literally means "circle" or "wheel" and is commonly translated as "conditioned existence", "cyclic existence", "cycle of existence", etc. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth, death, and bardo that arises from ordinary beings' grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. Samsara arises out of ignorance (avidya) and is characterized by dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). In the Buddhist view, liberation from samsara is possible by following the Buddhist path.

Overview

Samsara is the continual repetitive cycle of birth, death, and bardo that arises from ordinary beings' grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. Samsara arises out of ignorance (avidya) and is characterized by dukkha (suffering, anxiety, dissatisfaction). Specifically, samsara refers to the process of cycling through one rebirth after another within the six realms of existence. Each of these six realms represents a different type of suffering and is characterized by a specific psychological state.

Patrul Rinpoche explains:

The term samsara, the wheel or round of existence, is used here to mean going round and round from one place to another in a circle, like a potter's wheel, or the wheel of a water mill. When a fly is trapped in a closed jar, no matter where it flies, it can not get out. Likewise, whether we are born in the higher or lower realms, we are never outside samsara. The upper part of the jar is like the higher realms of gods and men, and the lower part like the three unfortunate realms. It is said that samsara is a circle because we turn round and round, taking rebirth in one after another of the six realms as a result of our own actions, which, whether positive or negative, are tainted by clinging.

Realms of existence

Main article: Six realms

See also: Bhavacakra

Buddhist cosmology typically identifies six realms of existence: gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hells. These realms can be understood both as psychological states and as aspects of Buddhist cosmology.

These six realms are typically divided into three higher realms and three lower realms: the three higher realms are the realms of the gods demi-gods, and humans; the three lower realms are the realms of the animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings. These realms can be described briefly as follows:

• God realm: the gods lead long and enjoyable lives full of pleasure and abundance, but they spend their lives pursuing meaningless distractions and never think to practice the dharma. When death comes to them, they are completely unprepared; without realizing it, they have completely exhausted their good karma (which was the cause for being reborn in the god realm) and they suffer through being reborn in the lower realms.
• Demi-god realm: the demi-gods have pleasure and abundance almost as much as the gods, but they spend their time fighting among themselves or making war on the gods. When they make war on the gods, they always lose, since the gods are much more powerful. The demi-gods suffer from constant fighting and jealousy, and from being killed and wounded in their wars with each other and with the gods.
• Human realm: humans suffer from hunger, thirst, heat, cold, separation from friends, being attacked by enemies, not getting what they want, and getting what they don't want. They also suffer from the general sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death. Yet the human realm is considered to be the most suitable realm for practicing the dharma, because humans are not completely distracted by pleasure (like the gods or demi-gods) or by pain and suffering (like the beings in the lower realms).
• Animal realm: wild animals suffer from being attacked and eaten by other animals; they generally lead lives of constant fear. Domestic animals suffer from being exploited by humans; for example, they are slaughtered for food, overworked, and so on.
• 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.
• Hell realm: hell beings endure unimaginable suffering for eons of time. There are actually eighteen different types of hells, each inflicting a different kind of torment. In the hot hells, beings suffer from unbearable heat and continual torments of various kinds. In the cold hells, beings suffer from unbearable cold and other torments.

Benefits of the human realm

Among the six realms, the human realm is considered to offer the best opportunity to practice the dharma, thereby offering the best chance to attain liberation from samsara. Dzongsar Khyentse explains:

If we need to judge the value of these six realms, the Buddhists would say the best realm is the human realm. Why is this the best realm? Because you have a choice... The gods don’t have a choice. Why? They’re too happy. When you are too happy you have no choice. You become arrogant. The hell realm: no choice, too painful. The human realm: not too happy and also not too painful. When you are not so happy and not in so much pain, what does that mean? A step closer to the normality of mind, remember? When you are really, really excited and in ecstasy, there is no normality of mind. And when you are totally in pain, you don’t experience normality of mind either. So someone in the human realm has the best chance of acquiring that normality of mind. And this is why in Buddhist prayers you will always read: ideally may we get out of this place, but if we can’t do it within this life, may we be reborn in the human realm, not the others.

Equivalence of cosmology and psychology

From the Buddhist point of view, the realms of samsara are descriptions of both psychological states of mind and physical cosmological realms. From the Buddhist perspective, rebirth in the different realms is determined by our karma, which is directly determined by our psychological states. For example, a feeling of anger can be said to lead to "rebirth" into a new "realm": this rebirth can be viewed on an instantaneous level, in which being angry can make someone feel very "heated", or on a longer-term level, in which a habitual tendency to anger can cause someone to be reborn into a "heated" situtation. An extreme habituation to anger and violence can lead to rebirth in one of the "hell realms". On the other hand, feelings of compassion and love can lead to rebirth in the realms where these feelings are dominant (such as certain god realms, or particular situations within the human or animal realms).

Rupert Gethin explains this equivalence of cosmology and psychology from the Buddhist perspective. Gethin states:

The key to understanding the Buddhist cosmological scheme lies in the principle of the equivalence of cosmology and psychology. I mean by this that in the traditional understanding the various realms of existence relate rather closely to certain commonly (and not so commonly) experienced states of mind. In fact Buddhist cosmology is at once a map of different realms of existence and a description of all possible experiences. This can be appreciated by considering more fully the Buddhist understanding of the nature of karma. At root karma or ‘action’ is considered a mental act or intention; it is an aspect of our mental life: ‘It is “intention” that I call karma; having formed the intention, one performs acts (karma) by body, speech and mind.’ [Aṅguttara Nikāya iii. 415; cf. Atthasālinī 88–9] Thus acts of body and speech are driven by an underlying intention or will (cetanā) and they are unwholesome or wholesome because they are motivated by unwholesome or wholesome intentions. Acts of body and speech are, then, the end products of particular kinds of mentality. At the same time karma can exist as a simple ‘act of will’, a forceful mental intention or volition that does not lead to an act of body or speech.

Generally speaking, each realm is said to be the result of one of the six main negative emotions: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger. Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse explains:

So we have six realms. Loosely, you can say when the perception comes more from aggression, you experience things in a hellish way. When your perception is filtered through attachment, grasping or miserliness, you experience the hungry ghost realm. When your perception is filtered through ignorance, then you experience the animal realm. When you have a lot of pride, you are reborn in the god realm. When you have jealousy, you are reborn in the asura (demi-god) realm. When you have a lot of passion, you are reborn in the human realm.

Body and mind under the influence of kleshas and karma

Contemporary Buddhist teacher Thubten Chodron emphasizes that samsara is not a place or external environment, but rather samsara refers to one's own body and mind under the influence of kleshas (disturbing emotions) and karma. Thubten Chodron states:

We tend to say, “Oh yes. This is samsara. We’re all in samsara.” And we tend to think the external environment is samsara. We think, “America is samsara.” Don’t we? We say, “Samsara is too much!”, meaning my job’s too much, everything around me is too much, I’ve got to get out of samsara – where’s the airplane? But samsara actually is not the environment we live in.

Samsara is our body and mind under the influence of [kleshas] and karma. Our body and mind that make us continually circle within the six realms. Samsara can refer to the present body and mind, or it can refer to our process of circling in the six realms, taking one body and mind after another body and mind – body and mind of a god, body and mind of a hell being, body and mind of a human, body and mind of a hungry ghost. That’s samsara. That’s cyclic existence.

When we say we want to generate the determination to be free of samsara, it’s not that we have to move out of Seattle. It’s we have to free ourselves from the body and mind that are under the influence of [kleshas] and karma. That’s a very important point to understand. The environment does influence us, but it’s not the environment that’s the root problem. Of course we have to choose our environment well so that we can practice well, but we have to remember that the basic problem is being under the control of the [kleshas] and karma which cause us to take a body and mind and have unsatisfactory experiences, over and over again.

Characteristics

Suffering

Samsara is characterized by suffering (dukkha).

Impermanent

Samsara is also characterized by impermanence. Contemporary scholar Paul Williams explains:

All rebirth is due to karman and is impermanent. Short of attaining enlightenment, in each rebirth one is born and dies, to be reborn elsewhere in accordance with the completely impersonal causal nature of one's own karman. The endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath, is samsara.

Habitual, repetitive pattern

Ajahn Sucitto describes the habitual, repetitive nature of samsara; he states:

The pattern is that each new arising, or “birth” if you like, is experienced as unfulfilling. In this process of ongoing need, we keep moving from this to that without ever getting to the root of the process. Another aspect of this need is the need to fix things, or to fix ourselves—to make conflict or pain go away. By this I mean an instinctive response rather than a measured approach of understanding what is possible to fix and what dukkha has to be accommodated right now. Then there’s the need to know, to have it all figured out. That gets us moving too. This continued movement is an unenlightened being’s response to dukkha. That movement is what is meant by samsāra, the wandering on. According to the Buddha, this process doesn’t even stop with death—it’s like the habit transfers almost genetically to a new consciousness and body. But even within this life, we can see all these “births,” or as the Buddha put it, birth—the same habit taking different forms. And each new birth is unsatisfactory too, because sooner or later we meet with another obstacle, another disappointment, another option in the ongoing merry-go-round. High-option cultures just give you a few more spins on the wheel.

No evident beginning

From the Buddhist point of view, all beings have been suffering in samsara for an unimaginable period of time, and they will continue to do so until they attain liberation. For example, the Assu Sutta of the Pali Canon states:

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: "From an inconstruable (sic) beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating & wandering on. What do you think, monks: Which is greater, the tears you have shed while transmigrating & wandering this long, long time—crying & weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing—or the water in the four great oceans?"

Cause

The root cause of samsara is ignorance (avidya)–belief in a single, independently-existing self. Ignorance gives rise to the three poisons, which lead to the creation of karma, which leads to rebirth in the six realms of existence.

Liberation

In the Buddhist view, beings can liberate themselves from samsara by following the Buddhist path. For example, the Dalai Lama explains:

To attain liberation from samsara one must perfect the three higher trainings: self-discipline, meditative concentration, and the wisdom of emptiness. In a sense, the most important of these is the wisdom of emptiness; for when we understand the empty, non-inherent nature of the self and phenomena, the endless forms of delusion that arise from grasping at true existence are directly eliminated. However, in order for the training in wisdom to mature and become strong, one must first develop meditative concentration; and in order to develop and support concentration.

The Dalai Lama also emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of samsara in order to be liberated from it. He states: "one must understand the nature and patterns of the general sufferings that pervade all of samsara, as well as the specific sufferings of the individual realms, particularly the three lower realms.

Within the Buddhist traditions

Mahayana

Relation between samsara and consciousness (vinnana)

Through various practices Buddhists attempt to counteract grasping and begin to reverse the samsāric cycle. As Waldron describes it: ”As a result of such practice, vinnana is no longer increased by grasping; on the contrary, a monk ’who is without grasping (or appropriation, anupadana) attains Nibbana’”. It would appear that with insight into the nature of suffering Buddhists have found a way to end it. Samsāra, or suffering, which may have lasted countless lifetimes, can end or be radically changed. As Waldron describes it: ”Upon realising Nirvana at the end of the process of karmacally driven rebirth, vinnana, the stream of worldly consciousness which persists throughout one’s countless lifetimes, also comes to an end, or at least is radically transformed”. How do these processes encourage the growth of consciousness, and perpetuate the cycle of rebirth? According to Waldron, the Buddha used a series of simple vegetative metaphors to describe this. He quotes the following dialogue: 'If these five kinds of seeds are unbroken, unspoiled, undamaged by wind and sun, fertile, securely planted, and there is earth and water, would the five kinds of seeds come to growth, increase, and expansion?' 'Yes, venerable sir.' 'Monks, four stations (thitiya) of consciousness should be seen as like the earth element. Delight and lust should be seen as like the water element. Consciousness together with its nutriment should be seen as like the five kinds of seeds'. These metaphors demonstrate the interconnectedness between consciousness, kármic deeds, desire and craving, in the cycle of kárma. Viññāna appears to be the only quality which leaves one’s body at death and enters another at conception. Viññāna therefore can be seen as a link between one life and the next - collecting kárma and then transmitting it over many lifetimes.

In Tibetan Buddhism

Saṃsāra is uncontrollably recurring rebirth, filled with suffering and problems (according to Kālacakra tantra as explained by Dr. A. Berzin). Other traditions believe that when one goes through the process of rebirth that they are the exact same person when they are reborn, but this however is not true according to the teachings of Buddha. Beings bear many similarities with their former selves but they are not the same person: this is why many Buddhists use the term rebirth instead of reincarnation. The term reincarnation implies that there is a transfer of one’s soul to the new life, but Buddhists believe this is not the case in samsara, rebirth is generally considered to be a stream of evolving consciousness. A good example to better understand the transfer of consciousness is “Like a billiard ball hitting another billiard ball. While nothing physical transfers, the speed and direction of the second ball relate directly to the first." This explains how the previous life has a direct impact on the next life.

It is common for Tibetan Buddhists to believe that while we continue to go from world to world we encounter other beings who are on the same path as us, and some also believe that all of these different worlds impact the worlds of beings who happen to share a similar place or path as us. An example of this is how Tibetan Buddhists often practice cultivating compassion within themselves by envisioning other living beings as their own mothers, due to the belief that we have all been reborn so many times that every being has been our mother at some point (as a consequence of being trapped with other beings in samsara for a near-infinite period of time). It is believed that there are Bodhisattvas who could achieve enlightenment, but because of their great compassion (Bodhicitta or Karuṇā) instead of entering into nirvana, they have vowed to be reborn in samsara until they have freed all the countless sentient beings of all of the six realms of samsara. A view commonly held by Tibetan Buddhists is that the Dalai Lama is an incarnation of the Bodhisattva of compassion (Avalokiteśvara or Chenrezik).

Buddha was the first person to grasp the belief of samsara and figure out how to end it. He taught that the only person who can stop their cycle of samsara is the person traveling through their path. Some Buddhists think that samsara is a place and that it is selfish for them to be able to stop it and leave the others behind, which is one of the reasons why the Bodhisattva vows of some Buddhist traditions include a vow to liberate all beings. However, most believe that samsara is a process that happens to everyone, and since everyone has the ability to escape it, to do so is not selfish. It is taught in Mahayana Buddhism that the main impetus to pursuing nirvana and enlightenment is compassion for all beings. The goal is to reach a level of development that enables one to ultimately benefit all sentient beings.

Contemporary glosses

The following table provides brief descriptions of the term samsara given by various contemporary Buddhist teachers and scholars:

Brief expression	Description	Source
Cycle of rebirths	The beginningless and endless cycle of rebirths throughout the six realms; the confused state of suffering from which Buddhists seek liberation.	Khenchen Konchog Gyaltshen (2010). A Complete Guide to the Buddhist Path. p. 458 (from the glossary)
Cyclic existence	Cyclic existence; the continual repetitive cycle of birth, death, and bardo that arises from ordinary beings' grasping and fixating on a self and experiences. All states of consciousness in the six realms [...], including the god realms, characterized by pleasure and power, are bound by this process. Samsara arises out of ignorance and is characterized by suffering.	Chögyam Trungpa. The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation. Edited by Judy L. Lief. Shambala. p. 137 (from the glossary)
Cyclic existence	The state of being constantly reborn due to delusions and karma.	Tsering, Geshe Tashi (2006), Buddhist Psychology: The Foundation of Buddhist Thought, Perseus, Kindle Locations 2286-2287 (from the glossary)
Cycle of clinging	The cycle of clinging and taking birth in one desire after another.	Phillip Moffitt. Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering. Rodale, Kindle Location 2881 (from the glossary)
Continuous vicious cycle	[...] the continuous vicious cycle of confirmation of existence. One confirmation needs another confirmation needs another . . .	Chögyam Trungpa. The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation. Shambhala Publications. Kindle Edition. (Kindle Locations 403-405).
Conditioned existence	[...] the worldly realm of suffering; conditioned existence.	Goleman, Daniel (2008). Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Kindle Locations 3588 and 4711.
Going round and round	[...] going nowhere but round and round. That’s called ‘samsāra’ – happy or unhappy, it’s the business of going round and round.	Ajahn Sucitto (2011). Meditation, A Way of Awakening. Amaravati Publications. p. 182. (from the glossary)
A mental trap	[When a person mistakes a stripped tie for a snake], the pain and anxiety that he experiences is what Buddhists call “samsara,” which is a kind of mental trap.	Khyentse, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (2011). What Makes You Not a Buddhist, (p. 72). Shambhala Publications. Kindle Edition.
Wheel of suffering	Wheel; in Buddhist terms, the wheel of suffering.	Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (2008). The Joy of Living. p. 115
Uncontrollably recurring rebirth	Uncontrollably recurring rebirth under the power of disturbing emotions and attitudes (kleshas) and of karma. Some translators render it as "cyclic existence."	Alexander Berzin, The Berzin Archives, Definition of samsara
Cyclic existence	Cyclic existence; the six realms: the lower realms of the hell beings, hungry ghosts and animals, and the upper realms of the humans, demigods and gods; the recurring cycle of death and rebirth within one or other of the six realms. It also refers to the contaminated aggregates of a sentient being.	Lama Zopa Rinpoche (2009), How Things Exist: Teachings on Emptiness, Kindle Locations 1295-1297
Cyclic rebirth	Although Buddhist doctrine holds that neither the beginning of the process of cyclic rebirth nor its end can ever be known with certainty, it is clear that the number of times a person may be reborn is almost infinite. This process of repeated rebirth is known as saṃsāra or ‘endless wandering’, a term suggesting continuous movement like the flow of a river. All living creatures are part of this cyclic movement and will continue to be reborn until they attain nirvana.	Keown, Damien (2000), Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Kindle Edition, Kindle Locations 702-706, 880

Alternate translations

• Conditioned existence (Daniel Goleman)
• Cycle of clinging and taking birth in one desire after another (Phillip Moffitt)
• Cycle of existence
• Cyclic existence (Jeffry Hopkins)
• Uncontrollably recurring rebirth (Alexander Berzin)
• Wheel of suffering (Mingyur Rinpoche)

See also

• Bhavacakra
• Buddhist cosmology
• Nirvana
• Rebirth (Buddhism)
• Six realms
• Wheel of Life

Sources

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