Questions tagged [samsara]
Saṃsāra (Sanskrit, Pali; also samsara) is a Buddhist term that literally means "continuous movement" and is commonly translated as "cyclic existence", "cycle of existence", etc. Within Buddhism, samsara is defined as the continual repetitive cycle of birth and death that arises from ordinary beings' grasping and fixating on a self and experiences.
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Why do we have to circulate in the circle of Samsara?
Why do we have to circulate in the circle of Samsara?
What did we do wrong for this suffering?
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Would total annihilation of Humanity cause Nirvana for everyone?
If nirvana is to escape the cycle of Samsara, wouldn't all of humanity being dead meaning Samsara would end? Say there was a total nuclear war and everyone ends up dead.
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Is karma related to entropy and if so is escaping samsara fighting a losing battle? (Warning: long layman ramblings inside)
I am new to Buddhism and wanted to ask a question that's been brimming on my mind for a while now. As a warning, I will touch upon a number of concepts that I am a complete layman in and so I am sure ...
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Is there a real contradiction between AN 3.47 and SN 15.9?
The setup ...
Mendicants, conditioned phenomena have these three characteristics. What three? Arising is evident, vanishing is evident, and change while persisting is evident. These are the three ...
user13375
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Reference request: Skulls higher than the Himalayan mountains
I’m looking for a sutta wherein the Buddha talks about the aimless wandering in Samsara and gives several analogies, one of them being about taking all the skulls one has left behind and piled them on ...
user24100
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Saṃsāra vs Saṃskāra
Saṃsāra (cycle of birth and death) and Saṃskāra (mental formations) seem to be semantically close to one another in the sense that Saṃskāra in the form of unwholesome seeds and habit energies would ...
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If you are reborn as a Deva, are you to interact with humans?
If I were to get a rebirth as a Deva, is it possible for me to interact with humans or my loved ones again? Would it be possible for me to help guide humans or is that forbidden?
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Why does Buddhism use the word "realm" when describing one of the different races?
Why is this word used? It's very confusing and makes it sound like you are reborn into a world and not as a different race of being or a human again?
Like saying "rebirth in the human realm" ...
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Is it believed to be better to be reborn as a deva or as a human again? Which should I be trying to be reborn as?
Is being reborn as a deva or human better? Can you achieve nirvana if you are reborn as a deva as well as a human?
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What does Samsara mean to Buddhists? How is it meaningful?
The Buddhist way to see the Samsara, or the circle of life and death, is, according to my understanding:
Innumerable causes and effects.
Is this right?
Is there a special meaning conferred by this, to ...
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If you are reborn into a different realm, does that mean you just live in that realm, or you are reborn as the inhabitants?
When Buddhist texts mention "realms of rebirth", it sounds like you are only living in those realms and not actually becoming one of the inhabitants.
Like for example being reborn into the ...
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Is there a Pali name for a state of being in which one experiences “craving without a target”?
I am speaking of a state of mild but persistent agitation in which one
notices the arising of the habit of
(1) sorting through the current collection of unresolved discomforts with the intention of ...
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If Samsara is natural in origin, is the Wheel of Dharma artificial?
I'm under the impresion that Samsara is the natural state of things in this Universe, every being just "recycles" itself on and on, at the laws of randomness and karma. Eventually, beings ...
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Can new beings come into existence without this existence being a rebirth?
Can beings that have come into existence that have never been reborn before, like comes into existence without that existence being a rebirth, or "its first birth".
Or is every being's ...
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If I'm reborn as a Deva, how long will my lifespan be?
If I am reborn as a Deva, how long would my lifespan be before I'm forced back into Samsara? Factors?
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Why did the Buddha teach how to escape Samsara if there is no soul?
Yes, I have seen the similar questions. But they do not satisfyingly answer my own since my question is slightly different. Let me explain:
I was reading up on Emptiness, Samsara and so on and found ...
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How to juggle between the need for Prosperity and Desires for a Samsaric mind?
I completely understand the second noble truth which says
origin of dukkha, which arises or "comes together" with taṇhā
("craving, desire or attachment")
in plain English,
...
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Infinite rebirth, finite kamma?
If we have been transmigrating in samsara infinitely via rebirths, then doesn't that mean that kamma which we have earned too is infinite? And if so, doesn't that imply that enlightenment is imposible ...
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Ten thousand world systems
I keep pondering over the below questions and thought of posting it here.
Is the physical universe(the one we observe with stars, galaxies, black holes etc) contained in the 31 planes of existence or ...
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What's the ordering of 6 realms of rebirth?
I've just started learning Buddhism, and currently investigating 6 realms of rebirth. What confuses me is that it seems different sources give inconsistent ordering of the realms.
For example, in the ...
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When one enters and remains in cessation of perception and feeling during death where in 31 planes of existence will he go to?
The question is complete, no additional explanation of the question is needed. I just need the suttas.
For reference:
“And further, with the complete transcending of the dimension of the
infinitude ...
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Did Nāgārjuna describe features of the Fourier transform?
The Fourier transform describes how to transform between cyclic and non cyclic. Did Nāgārjuna describe this already several centuries before Fourier as described in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā 25:19-20?
A ...
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Fear of Samsara in Others
I have been recently experiencing tremendous fear, but as I look through my eyes at the world and the objects it contains, the fear does not accord with what I see. The world itself is beautiful but ...
user17652
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Is Enlightenment a momentum with a continuum or can have regressions?
According to buddhism , does the enlightenment have a continuum from an initial momentum or can have also regressions?
I suppose if a specific state of mind has been acquired from innumerable causes ...
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Yama depiction on various Tankas
I saw many images of the circle of existence represented with Yama, the lord of death, with a tiger skin and a third eye. Why is he represented in this way?
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Why are plants not sentient beings?
Why in Buddhism plants are not recognized as sentient beings?
Can it be immoral to kill a plant? Can a plant be reincarnated as an animal? Is a plant alive?
Edit: I read somewhere a theory ...
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Dhamma - one law, two paths?
I was having a debate with a follower of another faith, and during it, this quandary came to me:
Did the Buddha describe one law for sentient beings - that is, the law of intentional action? (I ...
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Is procastinating lengthen the samsara?
I know that good or bad karma lengthen the samsara. Similary, Is procastination / laziness lengthen the samsara ?
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Do Mahayana Buddhists explain birth and extinction in the same way?
Nirvana is the extinction of rebirth, and birth is its arising. Right?
Is the debate throughout Buddhism on the "difference" between samsara and nirvana one of how to explain, rather than describe or ...
user2512
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In the movie Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring, why does the master cry?
Here is the movie: Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring 2003
The plot is that the student having attachment to a woman, leave the temple and marries her. Years fly by, and the student returns because ...
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If there be no soul or transmigrating entity that takes rebirth, who or what bears or enjoys the consequences or fruits of karma?
How can a religion or school of thought justify or rationalise the proposal that potential suffering could be inflicted on a subsequent rebirth - to all intents and purposes, a new individual, ...
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Is samsara real?
If there is afterlife and sentient beings revolving around life after life in 3 different realms, and there is cosmic law that liberates all living beings and actually is eager to do so, then beings ...
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Possibility of nothing but all-encompassing, absolute Nibbana without Samsara? If so, is sustainability possible (and how)?
Is nothing but all-encompassing, absolute Nibbana without Samsara possible? If so, is sustainability possible (and how)?
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If you cannot can save others then why is your practice more worthy than anything else?
If you have doubts on whether your practice (i.e. of the Eightfold Path) will free anyone from saṁsāra in your lifetime, then what reasons can you give for why your practice should take precedence ...
user8619
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Non duality and eternal life
Is there really any evidence that anything goes beyond death ? By that I mean our self awareness. That our awareness transcends death? I know there is absolutely no concrete evidence of reincarnation....
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How is the pendulum understood in Buddhism?
I've seen the pendulum is widely used as an illustration for finding a neutral, balance point between the extremes. Its movement is also periodic which shares the same characteristic with samsara. It ...
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Have Buddhas escaped samsara?
Have Buddhas escaped samsara? Obviously there is the mainly Chinese term "non-abiding in nirvana". I'm interested in an answer from any tradition at all, and for enlightened non-Buddhas, too.
To be ...
user2512
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What will be a video game version of Buddhist Samsara be like?
I am designing an educational computer simulation to explain the Buddhist concept of Samsara. The gameplay will consist of players interacting with the simulated environment and other players. One of ...
user13135
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Literature on ending Samsara on micro scale
I believe in patterns, and patterns of patterns, where scale is of secondary importance. Much like a fractal. The formula is more fundamental then the form.
From there on, I believe that the mind will ...
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Is the world inherently good or is it something to be shunned?
Reading most of the responses given here related to my question and also reading many suttas it seems to me that there are two contradictory views. I don't want to name any school of thought, I don't ...
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What happen before the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven create Samsara?
What i want to ask is what is the life before the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven create Samsara (know as wheel-of-life,cycle-of-birth) and law of causation
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In what sutta/suttas did Buddha stated "I never admire samsara/bhava"?
I have read it somewhere and can't remember now. Buddha told Bhikkus that he never admires a disiple who stops his effort after attaining "sotapanna" state. He should still work hard until he is ...
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After Nibbana, can one be reborn again in Samsara?
Is Nibbana final? Or if you attain Nibbana, can you be reborn again in Samsara if you wish?
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Memory about the past life
As per the scriptures, lower being such as pretha & higher beings such as deva & Brahma remembers their early life. But in case of humans, only rare incidents are reported in remembering the ...
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why is all of Buddhas past lifes referes to times of kings
The title says it all.
Why does all the recollections of past lifes of Buddha revolves around times of kings which were similar to the time the Buddha was living.
Why aren't there any mention of ...
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do all beings have past lives? [duplicate]
Is it a truth in Buddhism that all beings have past lives? How does Buddhism explain new life? For example, would the increasing amount of population be explained by some us having shared past lives?
user8619
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Plato's Parmenides, Samsara and Nirvana
Plato's Parmenides contains the following eight deductions:
(D1) If the G is, then the G is not F and not con-F in relation to itself.
(D2) If the G is, then the G is F and con-F in relation ...
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What does dogen's genjo-koan mean?
What does the genjo-koan means? Especially:
To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to
forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad
things. When ...
user2512
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Is it possible to be reborn for all eternity?
According to Buddhist teachings, is it possible to continue to reborn and suffer for all eternity?
Suppose if a being never attained any merit, never was able to work through its old karma. Would it ...
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Losing interest in Samsara and transformation one undergoes when following Buddhism
I have been reading books on Buddhism and contemplating on the Suttas. Lately the things which I was interested about like reading novels, watching movies, playing games and girls is losing its sheen. ...
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