Concept
Saṃsāra (Buddhism)
Overview
Saṃsāra (in Sanskrit (संसार) and Pali) in Buddhism is the beginningless cycle of repeated birth, mundane existence and dying again. Samsara is considered to be suffering (Skt. duḥkha; P. dukkha), or generally unsatisfactory and painful. It is perpetuated by desire and ignorance (Skt. avidyā; P. avijjā), and the resulting karma and sensuousness.
Rebirths occur in six realms of existence, namely three good realms (heavenly, demi-god, human) and three evil realms (animal, ghosts, hell). Saṃsāra ends when a being attains nirvāṇa, which is the extinction of desire and acquisition of true insight into the nature of reality as impermanent and non-self.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The difference, which we have represented as two paths, consists in whether that knowledge is called up by suffering which is merely and purely _known_, and is freely appropriated by means of the penetration of the _principium individuationis_, or by suffering which is directly _felt_ by a man himself. True salvation, deliverance from life and suffering, cannot even be imagined without complete denial of the will…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Saṃsāra is.
On the other hand, he who possesses a body fit for many things possesses a mind which, considered in itself alone, is largely conscious of itself, of God, and of objects. In this life, therefore, it is our chief endeavor to change the body of infancy, so far as its nature permits and is conducive thereto, into another body which is fitted for many things, and which is related to a mind conscious as much as possible…
Benedictus de Spinoza, The Philosophy of Spinoza
States what Saṃsāra is.
Immoderate pleasure is the forerunner of regret. It is succeeded by ennui, it is followed by weariness, it ends in disgust: transient happiness frequently converts itself into durable misfortune. According to these principles it will be seen that man, who in each moment of his duration seeks necessarily after happiness, ought, when he is reasonable, to manage, to husband, to regulate his pleasures; to refuse…
Paul Henri Thiry Holbach, The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 1
States what Saṃsāra is.
Philosophers who discussed Saṃsāra (Buddhism)
Related ideas
- Prajñā (Buddhism)
- Hinduism
- Two truths doctrine
- Nirvana (Buddhism)
- Jainism
- Linji Yixuan
- Saṃsāra
- Moksha
- Anattā
- Chögyam Trungpa
- Brahma
- Nirvana
- Nagarjuna
- Soul
- Buddhaghosa
- Tiantai
- Dhyana in Buddhism
- Impermanence
- Zhiyi
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Buddhism
- Enlightenment in Buddhism
- Rebirth (Buddhism)
- Oxford University Press
Place in the tradition
Part of Buddhist modernism.