Tag: Samsara

Karma and Rebirth in Buddhism

One of the aspects of Buddhism that is hard to explain but central to its teachings is Samsara. Samsara is how Buddhism explains the world we live in, describes the kind of aimless wandering that all beings do lifetime after lifetime ad nauseum, and why Buddhist teachings are relevant.

But why do people continue on in Samsara?

Because we naturally crave continuity. We crave existence on our terms. Even someone who wishes to end their life still on some deep fundamental level wants to keep going, they simply find life unbearable nonetheless. On the other hand, the state of Nirvana described by the Buddha isn’t a wish for extinction either, because that’s still predicated on a sense of craving.

The issue in Buddhism isn’t so much life of death, it’s craving.

Craving is not something we consciously think about or do. It’s deep in our nature. We can suppress it, we can discipline ourselves, but we cannot make ourselves stop craving. Even striving to end craving is just another form of craving, isn’t it?

As long as one craves in any form, they create karma. By creating karma, they pave the way for future conditions, future rebriths, and so on:

[At Saavatthii the Blessed One said:] “Monks, what a man wills, what he plans, what he dwells on forms the basis for the continuation of consciousness. This basis being present, consciousness has a lodgment. Consciousness being lodged there and growing, rebirth of renewed existence takes place in the future, and from this renewed existence arise birth, decay-and-death, grief, lamentation, suffering, sorrow and despair. Such is the uprising of this entire mass of suffering.

The Cetanā Sutta (SN 12.38), translation by Maurice O’Connell Walshe

It’s a huge, tangled ball of karma, intention, volition, craving, etc. Untangling such a mess is extremely difficult, hence reaching the state of a bodhisattva, let alone a fully-awakened buddha, is nothing to sneeze at.

But what is the alternative then?

Aimless wandering across eons, lifetime after lifetime. Sometimes it’s a good life, sometimes it’s a terrible one, lots of middling lifetimes in between. But there’s no rest, no sense of direction.

Sooner or later, once a person comes to realize this, they face the realization that the only way to attain peace and liberation is to untangle the mind.

Namo Shakamuni Buddha

P.S. Featured image is from the game Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I play this game too much (speaking of craving), and love Claude’s insights on more than one occasion.

Unfulfilled

Not to long ago, I tried to describe the First Noble Truth of Buddhism as pain, but I was thinking about it a bit more, and I think it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Buddhism describes the nature of existence as samsara, which in the past I’ve described as a kind of cosmic rat race, or described elsewhere as “aimless wandering”. And yet, while playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, this dialogue by Claude (arguably the “bro” we all need in life1) got me thinking:

“Even if it’s just a temporary coincidence, we should cherish it while it lasts.”

We never really get to cherish the good moments in life as long as we’d like, and there’s always just a bit too few of them anyway. Many Buddhist cultures romanticize this through things like cherry blossoms, poetry, and such, but it’s a sentiment that all people everywhere across history have felt. Even futuristic cyberpunk.

Further, we are thrust into life with being given any clear guide. Sure, we might find religion (or religion is thrust upon us in our youth), but this is not always guaranteed to be satisfying, and for us spiritually-inquisitive types, it’s not hard to scratch the surface and find issues here too. On the other hand, I think it’s wrong that there are no answers either. The world does function according to some kind of principle, just as it follows the laws of physics, even if we don’t fully understand it, and it behooves us to figure out what the principle is.

I think Claude is onto something here when he says that life is probably about living and experiencing and learning from it.

“That’s true. I guess trying things out and searching for our own path is what life is about.”

Or this quote from the classic science-fiction novel Dune Messiah:

“If you need something to worship, then worship life – all life, every last crawling bit of it! We’re all in this beauty together!”

Frank Herbert

The tragedy though comes from the fact that we’re not given so little time to do it well, and life often gets in our way. If we don’t find the answer we’re looking for in 40 years or even 400 years, then was any of it worth it? It’s hard to say. Further, in whatever life to come, we have to pay for our choices we made here, regardless of what happens next.

So, Claude is right: we really do need to cherish these moments. There are simply too few.

Namu Amida Butsu

P.S. more wisdom from Claude.

P.P.S. Not related to anything Buddhist, but Petra trying on glasses for the first time was a great gag. Sometimes you just have to enjoy the “small happinesses” in life.

“The danger for being sick is now … very high.”

P.P.P.S. The title of this post was inspired by the soundtrack song of the same name:

1 Big kudos to Joe Zieja for his amazing voice acting, by the way.