Word: samsara
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...half millenniums of adoration and mythology have obscured the unflattering fact that the Buddha was a deadbeat dad. So a shimmering new English translation of the Buddhacarita, the 2nd century Sanskrit poem chronicling his life, reminds us that in his search for enlightenment and release from samsara - the wheel of rebirths that condemns us to endless lives and thus suffering - he cruelly abandoned his wife and young son Rahula (whose name, making a not-so-subtle point, means "fetters...
...Truths dovetailed with the Hindu scheme of reincarnation: we are reborn again and again, in an endless and wearying cycle called samsara, each life affected by the good and bad deeds performed in previous existences, according to a system called karma. The attainment of Nirvana allows us finally to step away from what one writer called "the squirrel cage of birth and rebirth" and enter into oneness with the cosmos. From the beginning, a practice of meditation was the chief mechanism to gain the awareness necessary for enlightenment...
| 1 |