BSDA - Samsara and the Wheel of Life Flashcards
what is samsara
- Cycle of birth, death and rebirth
- “Wandering on”
- A process, continually repeating cycle of birth and death, where beings cycle through 6 realms of existence
- The reason it exists is that people fixate on themselves and their experiences
- It comes from ignorance and it causes a state of suffering and dissatisfaction
- Overcome by following the Buddhist path and improving Karma
- Life on earth filled with sorrow and pain
what is dependent origination
- system of causality
- within samsara everything exists because of a prior cause
- ceaseless series of cause and effect –> no stability
what does dependent origination teach us about life in samsara
- everything has been caused to some condition, so there is nothing eternal
- things do have an existence, meaning that buddhist doctrine is not nihilistic
- shows the way to the cessation of samsara –> no cause means nothing new will exist
- shows how there can be rebirth without a permenant self, atman
how is there rebirth without an atman, but person A and B are still linked
- linked through CAUSAL PROCESSES
- A is dead and their karmic actions are factors in the cause that created B
- A and B are connected as they have a shared karmic causality, so are not completely different from eachother
- 12 fold formula for dependent orig that explains rebirth
quotes on samsara
‘a state characterised by suffering impermenance and no self or essence’ cush
‘we are as addicted to word life as to cigarettes or heroin’ cush
‘nirvana is seeing samsara for what it really is - empty’ cush
‘the entire wheel becoming a representation of neurotic suffering’ epstein
‘long is the wordly existence to fools who know not the good teaching’ dhammapada
‘this world is like a decorated chariot..fools flounder…the wise have no attachment to it’ dhammapada
what is the wheel of life and what are its meanings
- tibetan and originated in buddhas time
- talks of 3 poisons, realms of rebirth and 12 niddanas
- what it means to be human and what stops us from attaining nirvana
- conventional: helps us understand how to achieve a better rebirth
- ultimate: wheel cannot be interpreted literally as anatta –> refers to human psychology
what do the snake pig and rooster represent on the wheel of life
- 3 poisons,
- hate, ignorance and desire respectively
what are the 6 realms and intermediate state
3 GOOD REALMS OF SAMSARA, good karma = good rebirth
- heavens (home of Gods, blissful)
- human: the only realm u can reach nirvana in,
- azuras
3 BAD REALMS OF SAMSARA
- hungry ghosts: represents craving and attachment to this realm, unable to leave
- animals (lack of self awareness to achieve self liberation)
- hell –> tortured due to negative karma
- bardo: intermediate state, feeling through rebirth
12 niddanas and yama
- 12 links of interdependent origination –> chain of cause and effect, causes of rebirth
- 2 weak links, craving and ignorance
- craving dispelled by meditation and ignorance dispelled by studying ways out of samsara
- yama: lord of death who holds the wheel in place
- symbolic, shows that every being is subject to death
where is Buddha in the wheel of life
- he is separate from the 6 worlds, but points to the way out (he is on the right and points to the left)
- points to nirvana, the way to escape the wheel of samsara
- the potential Nirvana, inherent in all beings, (the proud Gods as well insatiable monsters, the warring Titans suffering men, as well as the tormented beings in hell and the animals) all have the possibility of attaining salvation in a future good rebirth in the World of Men
why should we study the wheel of life
- gives knowledge
- triggers compassion
- motivates renunciation
how does the wheel of life give knowledge
- brings knowledge of the buddhist way of understanding the world
- depicts samsara (conditioned existence) and describes experiences of beings go through due to circumstances of birth
- circumstance determines life experience
- knowledge and understanding on ways of life and variety of beings
- takes us beyond human condition and life but to beings in diff circumstances and broadens minds in terms of the world (perspective)
- 6 states of samsara are psychological –> helps us understand ourselves because it helps us identify the various states of mind we go through –> can help us have a clear understandings of our feelings and what triggers them
- depicts casual connections at work creating life as we know it on outer ring –> explains chain reaction that creates the state of mind and types of experience we have in life
‘our life is shaped by our mind’
‘joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves’
dhammapada
how does the wheel of life trigger compassion
- help someone along their spiritual path, gives knowledge that allows us to connect with the experience of beings allowing sympathy and empathy
- gives perspective on life supporting sympathy and respect for other beings as we are all in samsara and will be reborn in different realms
- humans are not separate from other types of beings, interconnected –> closeness and affinity and intimacy
- shared experience of suffering for all beings, creating connection between all beings –> develop love and compassion for others as we understand others situation
