Based on Ven. Thanissaro (Samsara, The Karma of Questions) edited by Dhr. Seven, Ananda M., Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| Wow, that is one BIG dangerous ocean! A flood! A vast and endless expanse of water! |
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| A big boat for everyone to cross over? SSM |
Samsara literally means "
the continued wandering on" through rebirth.
It is the name -- in Buddhism, Vedic Brahminism, Hinduism, and Jainism -- for the disappointing place before crossing over to "the further shore" called nirvana (the
deathless).
But Buddhist texts do not literally call it a "place." It is a
process:
the
impersonal process of rebirth.
What are we doing as we store up karma (deeds) and meet with their results? We are expressing the tendency to continue wandering on in this endless cycle, creating worlds on top of worlds, moving into them, then lose them as they hurtle toward destruction.
Even as worlds fall apart, which they do from the moment of their creation, we create others and go there.
At the same time, on account of the playing out of karma, we bump into others who are also co-creating worlds.
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| Well, it was worth a try, but this sea is rough. |
The play of this
impermanent, impersonal, and unfulfilling process can at times be enjoyable. It would even be an innocent pastime if it were not for the fact that it entails so much
disappointment (suffering, loss, misery, pain, woe, ill,
dukkha).
Worlds keep caving in and killing us, with each rebirth, a redeath. Moving into a new world requires effort, depleting our store of merit which is what brings about pleasing results. There are great pains and risks of taking rebirth again and again.
We store up bad (unwholesome, unprofitable, akusala) karma to be met with again and again. We endure hard knocks -- mental and physical -- enduring childhood after childhood, ignorance into adulthood, then ignorance again.
The Buddha posed the question, "What is greater, the water in the oceans or the tears we have shed while continuing to wander on [life after life]?" The answer, of course, is the tears. We might reflect on this the next time we stand at the beach and gaze at the ocean or play in the waves.
More
Ocean of Tears
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| The Wheel of Rebirth is endless and so sad! |
"Meditators, what is greater, the tears shed while
continuing to wander on through this long, long cycle -- crying and weeping from being brought into contact with what we do not want and being separated from what we do want -- or the water in the four great oceans?
"...This is the greater: the tears shed while wandering on...
"Long have we (repeatedly) experienced the death of a mother. The tears shed over a mother's death while wandering on through this long, long cycle -- crying and weeping from being brought into contact with what we do not want and being separated from what we want -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
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| No!! I'm a state-sponsored killer of children! |
"
Long have we (repeatedly) experienced the death of a father... the death of a brother... the death of a sister...
the death of a son... the death of a daughter... the loss of relatives... the loss of wealth... loss due to disease.
"The tears we have shed due to loss because of disease while continuing to wander on through this long, long cycle -- crying and weeping from being brought into contact with what we do not want and being separated from what we want -- are greater than the water in the four great oceans.
"Why is that? It is because the starting point of this wandering on is unfathomable. A beginning is not evident since beings -- hindered by
ignorance and fettered by
craving -- have been wandering on.
"Long have we experienced suffering, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelled the cemeteries -- long enough to become disenchanted with all formations (things dependent on support-conditions for their existence), long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to let go" (
SN 15.3).
A human rebirth is precious
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| I'm wasting my human life in bondage to craving! |
"Meditators, suppose that this great earth were totally covered with water and a person were to toss a floating ring upon the water.
"Wind from the east would push it west, wind from the west would push it east, wind from the north would push it south, and wind from the south would push it north.
"Now suppose a blind sea turtle were to dive in and only come to the surface once every century.
"What do you think -- how likely is it that that blind sea turtle, coming to the surface only once every century, would stick its head through that ring?"
"Venerable sir, it would be very unlikely if the blind sea turtle, coming to the surface only once a century, were to stick its head through that ring."
"Likewise, meditators, it is rare that one is ever reborn on the human plane. [It is more likely that that blind sea turtle, surfacing only once every century, would stick its head through a ring as it is being sent every which way by wind and wave.]
"Likewise, it is rare that a Tathagata [a Buddha], worthy and fully awakened, ever arises in the world.
"Likewise, it is rare that a Doctrine and Discipline (
Dharma-Vinaya) expounded by a Tathagata ever appears in the world.
"Now, this human plane has been reached. A Tathagata, worthy and fully awakened, has arisen in the world. A Doctrine and Discipline expounded by a Tathagata has appeared in the world.
"Therefore, our duty is the [fourfold] contemplation:
- 'This is suffering...
- This is the origin of suffering...
- This is the cessation of suffering...
- This is the path-of-practice leading to the cessation of suffering'" (SN 56.48).
[NOTE: These are the Four Ennobling Truths, the four things that lead us to complete liberation from the sea of samsara, the otherwise endless round of rebirth and suffering.]
Why do we wander in samsara?
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The 31 Planes of Existence
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"It is because of not understanding and not penetrating these four things that we have wandered on through such a long, long cycle. What four things?
1. "It is because of not understanding and not penetrating
NOBLE virtue that we have wandered on through such a long, long cycle.
2. "It is because of not understanding and not penetrating noble
coherence (collectedness, concentration) that we have continued to wander on through such a long, long cycle.
3. "It is because of not understanding and not penetrating noble
wisdom that we have continued to wander on through such a long, long cycle.
4. "It is because of not understanding and not penetrating noble
freedom that we have wandered on through such a long, long cycle.
"But when noble virtue...noble coherence...noble wisdom... [and] noble freedom [are] understood and penetrated then
craving for
becoming [
continued rebirth] is destroyed, the guide to becoming (craving-and-clinging) is ended, and there is now no further becoming" (
AN 4.1).
O, Daria, it's a Sick Sad World:
The best-selling author of The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry now turns his sights on the United States of America, one of the most genetically variegated countries in the world.
Among white Americans, evidence of African DNA is most common in the South [where rape of slaves and servants was a common practice, which continues today as human sex trafficking]. 
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