Samsara: Rebirth or Redeath? (video)

Weixingli; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

What a terrible thing is this painful cycle, but nirvana is the blissful end of all suffering.

(Weixingli, zhengxintang.com) Go Beyond Samsara. See full description of this short film down below.

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Symbolic Tibetan Buddhist representation of samsara

Saṃsāra (lit., "the continued wandering on") in Buddhism, according to Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal, is the disappointment-laden cycle of birth, death, rebirth, and redeath without discernible beginning or end.

It is also referred to as the "wheel of life and death" (bhavacakra) or cycle of existence and so on. It is often mentioned in Buddhist texts with the term punabhava (rebirth, re-becoming, reappearing). The Buddha mentioned that the worlds one is wandering through may be going from

1. dark to bright
2. bright to bright
3. bright to dark
4. or dark to dark.

Nirvana (freedom) is liberation (moksha) from this miserable cycle. Nirvana is the foundation, the most important purpose of the Buddhist path [109, 110, 111].

Samsara is considered impermanent in Buddhism and other Indian or "Dharmic" traditions like Jainism, the old Vedic Brahminical religion, modern Hinduism, Sikhism, and to some extent syncretic Sufism.

Karma and vipaka (deeds and results, seeds and ripening fruits) drive this impermanent cycle according to Buddhism.

Interpreting Jain representation of samsara: a human delights in sweet sensuality (honey), hanging on to unreliable roots being nibbled at by rats and about to plummet into unimaginable worlds of horror, the consequences ill done deeds, which is not only another death but many more rebirths. The flowering tree of delights is being knocked over by a mighty naga (elephant), Death. Meanwhile, "shining ones" (heavenly light beings, devas) look down from one of their ships (vimana). We are oblivious to our predicament because we are obsessed with sense pleasures.

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Oh no, not again!!! Why am I here?

Paul Williams states that "short of attaining enlightenment, in each rebirth one is born and dies, to be reborn elsewhere in accordance with the completely [in an ultimate sense] impersonal causal nature of one's own karma; this endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath is Saṃsāra" [112].

The Four Noble Truths, accepted by all Buddhist traditions, are aimed at ending this Samsara-related re-becoming (rebirth) and associated cycles of suffering [113][114][115].

Like Jainism, a fellow wandering ascetic tradition that has survived down to this day, Buddhism developed its own samsara theory.

It evolved over time the mechanistic details on how the wheel of mundane existence works over the endless cycles of rebirth and redeath [116][117].

In early Buddhist traditions, saṃsāric cosmology consisted of 31 planes through which the wheel of existence recycled [109].

This cosmology includes from the bottom up hells/purgatories (niraka/niraya), demons (asuras, yakshas), hungry ghosts (pretas), animals (tiryak), humans (manushya, which exist in many more places than on this planet), and shining ones (devas, asuras, celestial light beings) [109][116][118].

In later Mahayana traditions, this list grew to a list of six realms of rebirth, adding demigods (asuras), who are also seen as titans, demons, and angry or jealous beings [109][119].

The "hungry ghost, heavenly, hellish realms" respectively formulate the ritual, literary and moral spheres of many contemporary Buddhist traditions [109][116].

How to ascend 31 planes and get out?

The concept of saṃsāra in Buddhism envisions that these 31 planes spoken of as six realms by lumping all of the shining ones above the human plane as one group even though they are very diverse, are interconnected.

Everyone cycles life after life. Death is just a transition to yet another an afterlife, often with a layover in an intermediate state (called a bardo in Tibetan Buddhism) as a spirit being (as a preta, deva, gandharva) through these realms or worlds called lokas.

This is because of a combination of ignorance, craving, and karma (deeds) or virtuous and unvirtuous actions [109][116].

"Nirvana" is typically described as freedom from rebirth and the extinction of all forms of suffering/disappointment. Only this complete freedom, called the "unconditioned," is an alternative to the staggering diversity of samsara, the "conditioned" world, in Buddhism [120][121].

However, Buddhist texts developed a more comprehensive theory of rebirth, according to Steven Collins, from fears of redeath. Another way to speak of nirvana is by using synonyms like amata (Sanskrit amrita, "the deathless") and sarana ("refuge," "safety from all bondage"). These states are considered synonymous with nirvana [120][122]. More

FILM: Go Beyond Samsara
Weixingli 2011 (zhengxintang.com, v.youku.com)

The film at the top examines our existence.

Trying to tell the truth about the world we live in, Go Beyond Samsara was banned by YouTube. Samsara means "life cycling around in the Six Realms," from birth to death, redeath to rebirth... This film tries to answer three philosophical questions from a Buddhist point of view:

1. Who are we?
2. Where are we from?
3. Where are we going?

Moreover, it tries to reveal the true face of our lives: Is there fate? Who is ruling our fate? What happens after death? Are there really heavens and hells?

• 03:08 Story of the annihilation of the Shakya [Scythian] tribe
• 05:41 Asking the questions: Why am I here? Who am I? Where am I going?
• 08:00 The Wheel of Samsara
• 09:04 Three Poisons: ignorance, craving, hatred
• 12:29 Good Karma and Evil Karma
• 12:55 The Six Realms [31 Planes of Existence]
• 18:19 The Twelve Links (Nidanas)
• 19:43 The first two and a half links of past lives
• 26:56 The next seven and a half links of current life
• 42:55 The last two links of the new life
• 43:46 Review of the Cycle of Samsara
• 46:24 The Ruler of Death

Download English subtitles (dl.dropbox.com/u/8053958...). Find a mistake in the subtitles? Send a message. Thank you! Copyright reserved by zhengxintang.com.