Samsara
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In
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Jainism and Surat Shabda
Yoga,
samsara refers to the concept of
reincarnation or
rebirth in Indian
philosophical traditions.
Etymology of SamsaraSamsara is derived from saṃ¡Ìsṛ, "to flow together," to go or pass through states, to wander. One who is subject to Samsara is called a samsarin.
Cycle of rebirthIn most Indian philosophical traditions, including the orthodox Hindu and heterodox Buddhist and Jain systems, an ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is assumed as a fact of nature. These systems differ widely, however, in the terminology with which they describe the process and in the metaphysics they use in interpreting it. Most of these traditions, in their evolved forms, regard Samsara negatively, as a fallen condition which is to be escaped. Some, such as Advaita Vedanta regard the world and Samsaric participation in it as fundamentally illusory.Some later adaptations of these traditions identify Samsara as a mere metaphor.
Samsara in HinduismIn some types of Hinduism, Samsara 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 ), 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 (sunyata)) 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.Samsara in JainismIn Jainism, karma, anuva (ego) and the veil of maya are central. In Jainism, liberation from samsara is called moksha or mukti.
Samsara in BuddhismSamsara in Nikaya BuddhismWhereas in Hinduism some being (atman, jiva, etc.) is regarded as being subject to Samsara, Buddhism was founded on a rejection 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 Pudgalavada, 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 samsara is a negative condition to be abated through religious practice concluding in the achievement of final nirvana.
Samsara in Mahayana BuddhismAccording to several strands of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the division of samsara and nirvana is attacked using an argument that extends some of the basic premises of anatta 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 N¨¡g¨¡rjuna 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. Adapted with permission from wikipedia.
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