Samsara and the 6 Realms of Existence Flashcards
Define samsara:
The process of repeated rebirth, ‘endless wandering’
Punabhava:
Rebirth - literally, rebecoming - not reincarnation. When you’re reborn, it’s not You, it’s a new life - only your humanity as such is passed on, the interaction between the 5 skandhas - feelings (emotions), perception (experiences that shape our view), consciousness (awareness), mental formation (reactions, awareness of others), form (6 senses - last is reason). We are the same but different, like a candle burning down and then using the last bit of flame to light another candle, or milk that turns into butter and ghee
The Buddhist universe:
Two categories - the physical universe, and the lifeforms in it. The physical universe is a bhajana, container, and the sattva, beings, inhabit it. The physical universe is made of 5 elements - wind, fire, earth, water and void -which interact to form ‘world systems’ (equivalent to solar systems). These undergo cycles of evolution and decline over billions of years, and the moral status of the inhabitants determines the speed of decline. One creation myth describes something like evolution, with translucent, agender bodies that start to feed on the fabric of the world and become denser, until they resemble the physical bodies we have. Competition leads to disputes leads to leadership and the origins of social life
The 6 realms of rebirth:
Hell - multiple, hot or cold, not final, just temporary - once the evil karma has run its course it ends
Animal - only have brute instinct, no understanding of their situation or how to improve it - they also live lives of exploitation and fear
Ghost - hovering on the edges of the human realm, they developed strong attachments in life and now are consumed by desires they can never satisfy - often depicted with small mouths but large stomachs
Titans - for those motivated by power, they have pleasure and abundance but they constantly seek to fight each other or the gods - they suffer from being wounded or killed and lack of fulfilment from the wars
Human - we suffer a lot but we are the only ones who make spiritual progress because we aren’t restricted in our desires, or constantly in an extreme emotion
God - 26 within it, idyllic paradise, but they become complacent and lose sight of the need to strive for nibbana as they aren’t reminded of the suffering they need to escape - they sometimes come to see the Buddha though - it’s where Maitreya, the next Buddha, is now - they exhaust their good karma so are reborn lower down afterwards - top 5 are for non-returners who are close to enlightenment but won’t be reborn as a human
Karma:
Intentional moral acts contribute towards good or bad karma, which move you up or down the elevator of rebirth, a natural law - not a balance, you must spend good and bad karma or it gets passed on to the next life. The acts that contribute have transitive (direct) effects and intransitive effects (on the agent). We are our own karma - you are responsible for anything that happens to you, but it’s not your fault - like working in construction and get cancer but weren’t aware of the risks - you’re still responsible, but it’s not your fault. We create ourselves through our free moral choices. The karmaphala, more long-term effects, are what’s passed on - we experience all the consequences of our actions, just not all in one life cause some may happen after our death. Certain rebirth aspects like caste, family, appearance, and personality are karmically determined, but not everything that ever happens is - it’s not precise, and natural causes are a thing - we can always establish new patterns. 3 fires are bad, opposites are good, and intention and action must be good for it to count - doing no harm
Paticcasamuppada:
Dependent origination / conditioned arising - all things are caused by something else - contingent. There are 12 causes/conditions known as nidanas (links).
Wheel of life:
Large disc is the world, Mara/Yama is holding it, an enlightened one is on a lotus flower outside it, Mara has 5 skulls representing what nothing can give - freedom from age, sickness, death, decay, rebirth, 3 eyes symbolise 3 marks of existence. Yama may be the god of death but he isn’t evil, just inevitable and scary. At the centre are the three fires/poisons, the outer circle is the 12 nidanas and the inner segments are the 6 realms
12 nidanas:
Blind man - ignorance - doesn’t see ahead - past life - blank slate, no knowledge except karmaphala
Potter - karmic formations - due to ignorance, we make choices based on 3 fires that keep us in samsara
Monkey - consciousness - our mind moves restlessly, habitual awareness based on karmic formations
4 people in a boat - 5 skandhas - boat is form - we seek out a new body for more experiences so are reborn due to consciousness and karmic formations
House with 5 windows and a door - senses - interact with each other due to skhandas
Couple embracing - sensation - senses set up conditions for sensations - present life
Man with arrow in eye - feeling - sensations set up conditions for feelings (because about the sensations)
Woman offering a drink - craving - point of responsibility - we respond to good feelings with craving and vice versa
Woman picking fruit - grasping - we give in to temptation and act on it
Pregnant woman - becoming - rebirth begins at fertilisation - we grasp at rebirth after death - future life
Woman giving birth - birth - life
Corpse - death - birth leads inevitably to death, and back to ignorance
Each life is a cycle in itself, the why, the how and the what respectively
3 fires:
Cockerel - greed - loba - companions of desire and lust - these passions cause us to want to have things - domination causes stinginess, lack of compassion, hoarding or self-indulgence - brings attachment to the material
Snek - hatred - dosa - companions of hatred, animosity and aversion - causes us to reject what displeases us/infringes on our ego - domination causes depression/obsession over politics, real/imagined enemies, or life’s negative realities
Pig - ignorance/delusion - moha - ignorance paves the way for delusion, particularly about our true selves, and for believing what is false - domination causes insecurity, weakness, powerlessness or apathy
Many of us are dominated by one of them, and the others also affect us - they are the roots of our suffering and that of our loved ones/society as they cause us to make bad choices - enlightenment is a way out - opposites are the 3 wholesome acts - prajna (wisdom), dana (generosity) and metta (loving-kindness)
