Samsara
In Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and other related religions, samsāra refers to reincarnation or rebirth in Indian philosophical traditions. Etymologically, Samsara is derived from the the Sanskrit and Pāli phrases "to flow together," "to go or pass through states", "continous movement", "continuous flowing" or "to wander". In most Indian philosophical traditions, including the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain systems, an ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is assumed to be a principle of nature. Each tradition differs, however, in the terminology with which they describe the process and in the metaphysics they use to interpret it. Most of these traditions, in their evolved forms, regard Samsāra negatively, as a fallen condition which is to be escaped. Some later adaptations of these traditions identify Samsāra as a mere metaphor.
Samsāra in Hinduism
In some types of Hinduism, Samsāra is seen as ignorance of the True Self, Brahman, and thus the soul is led to believe in the reality of the temporal, phenomenal world.
In Hinduism, it is avidya, or ignorance, of one's true self, that leads to ego-consciousness of the body and the phenomenal world. This grounds one in desire and the perpetual chain of karma and reincarnation. The state of illusion is known as Maya.
Hinduism had many terms for the state of liberation like moksha, mukti, nirvana, and mahasamadhi.
The Hindu Yoga traditions hold various beliefs. Moksha may be achieved by love of Ishwar/God (see bhakti movement), by psycho-physical meditation (Raja Yoga), by discrimination of what is real and unreal through intense contemplation (Jnana Yoga) and through Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action that subverts the ego and enforces understanding of the unity of all. Advaita Vedanta, which heavily influenced Hindu Yoga, believes that Brahman, the ultimate Truth-Consciousness-Bliss, is the infinite, impersonal reality (as contrasted to the Buddhist concept of shunyata) and that through realization of it, all temporal states like deities, the cosmos and samsara itself are revealed to be nothing but manifestations of Brahman.
Some, such as Advaita Vedanta regard the world and Saṃsāric participation in it as fundamentally illusory.
Samsāra in Jainism
In Jainism, karma, anuva (ego) and the veil of maya are central. Liberation from samsara is called moksha or mukti.
Samsāra in Buddhism
Samsāra, term for refers in Buddhism to the concept of a cycle of birth (jāti) and consequent decay and death (jarāmaraṇa), in which all beings in the universe participate and which can only be escaped through enlightenment. It is generally opposed to nirvāṇa or nibbāna.
Whereas in Hinduism some being (Atman], jīva, etc.) is regarded as being subject to Samsāra, Buddhism was founded on a rejection (anatta) of such metaphysical substances, and originally accounts for the process of rebirth/reincarnation by appeal to phenomenological or psychological constituents. Later schools of Buddhism such as the Pudgalavāda, however, re-introduce the concept of a "person" which transmigrates. The basic idea that there is a cycle of birth and rebirth is, however, not questioned in early Buddhism and its successors, and neither is, generally, the concept that saṃsāra is a negative condition to be abated through religious practice concluding in the achievement of final nirvāṇa.
According to several strands of the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition, the division of Samsāra and nirvāṇa is attacked using an argument that extends some of the basic premises of anātman and of Buddha's attack on orthodox accounts of existence. This is found poetically in the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature and more analytically in the philosophy of Nāgārjuna and later writers. It is not entirely clear which aspects of this theoretical move were developed first in the sutras and which in the philosophical tradition.
Samsārais uncontrollably recurring rebirth, filled with suffering and problems (according to Kālacakra tantra as explained by Dr. A. Berzin). In this sense, Samsara may be translated "Wheel of Suffering."
See also
- Bhavacakra
- Reincarnation
- Nirvana
- Moksha
External links
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