Samsara

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

Samsara is the continous movement or continuous flowing, refers to the concept of a cycle of birth (jati) and consequent decay and death (jaramarana), in which all beings in the universe participate and which can only be escaped through enlightenment. It is generally opposed to nirvana.

Samsara in Nikaya Buddhism

Whereas in Hinduism some being (atman, jiva, etc.) is regarded as being subject to samsara, Buddhism was founded on a rejection of such metaphysical substances, and originally accounts for the process of rebirth/reincarnation by appeal to phenomenological or psychological constituents. Later schools of Buddhism such as the Pudgalavada, however, re-introduce the concept of a "person" which transmigrates. The basic idea that there is a cycle of birth and rebirth is, however, not questioned in early Buddhism.

Samsara in Mahayana Buddhism

According to several strands of the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the division of samsara and nirvana is attacked using an argument that extends some of the basic premises of anatta and of Buddha's rejection on orthodox accounts of existence. This is found poetically in the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature and more analytically in the philosophy of Nagarjuna and later writers. It is not entirely clear which aspects of this theoretical move were developed first in the sutras and which in the philosophical tradition.