Samsara
- Created by: ashleygreenwood
- Created on: 09-05-16 17:39
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- Examine the Buddhist teachings about death and rebirth.
- Introduction
- A Buddhist believes that a person is made up pf 5 heaps which are known as skandhas and that they rearrange when we are reborn.
- The wheel of Samsara helps to explain this concept.
- Samsara is the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth through the law of karma.
- Karma means volitional actions.
- The Sanskrit literal meaning is 'wandering on'.
- Kalpas/Eons are the units used for the Samsara time scale. They are vast units of time equivalent to billions of years.
- At the centre of the wheel are the 3 mental poisons which keep the wheel of samsara turning.
- The 3 mental poisons are greed, hatred and delusion, which are represented by a pig, snake and rooster.
- They are pictured biting onto each others tails, to show that each feed of one another.
- The next circle is divided into 2. One half shows humans moving up, while the other half shows them moving down.
- This indicates that depending on your karma, you can move into a better realm or a worse realm.
- By doing good skilful actions you will produce good karma-phala, but if you do bad/unskilful actions you will produce bad karma-phala.
- Karma Phala refers to karmic fruits.
- However just because you produce bad karma-phala doesn't necessarily mean that a bad rebirth will follow but the appropriate results will come to fruition in time.
- Then comes the 6 realms, which are divided into good and bad.
- Good Realms
- The human realm is seen as the most favourable as it has the correct amount of suffering to motivate humans to seek enlightenment and release.
- Peter Harvey described the human realm as 'the most marvellous opportunity for growth'.
- The animal realm, which is the most basic of the realms.
- The deva realm has everything provided for you. It is a beautiful dream world, however this means they lack motivation to seek nirvana.
- The human realm is seen as the most favourable as it has the correct amount of suffering to motivate humans to seek enlightenment and release.
- Bad Realms
- The hell realm is full of torture.
- The peta realm includes the hungry ghosts which have an attachment to the earth.
- The asuras relam is where angry beings are always at war with one another.
- Bad actions lead to a bad realm, good actions lead to a good realm.
- Good Realms
- Then comes the 12 links. These are ways of expressing the truth that ignorance, about the consequences of things lead to suffering.
- Eg. A picture of a potter which indicates how we can shape and create our own future if we produce good karmic actions and that if we do really well have a good rebirth into a more favourable realm.
- E.g. A blind man which represents spiritual ignorance, which is the basic nature of life as analysed by the Buddha.
- Yama, the Lord of Death keeps the wheel turning. He is shown griping the wheel tightly to show that karma has a huge influence on your rebirth.
- Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings. They contribute to each realm separately.
- In the human realm, they show the way to spiritual life.
- In the animal realm, they bring education and culture.
- Linking to anatta which means no self/ no permanent fixed state.
- Imagine the flame of one lamp lighting another. It is not the same flame in the second lamp, but it has come about due to the first.
- In the same way, although there is no soul to pass from one life to another, Buddhists see the future arising out of the present.
- Imagine the flame of one lamp lighting another. It is not the same flame in the second lamp, but it has come about due to the first.
- Introduction
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