sena Agbata rubin project
Dr. Trusso
HUC 105/Rubin
museum project
Samsara and the
trap of Samsara
The
world of philosophy of religion is a world that explain a lot about religion.
It’s a course that talks about the major religion in the world and also the
doctrine each of them carries through generation. The religion of Buddhism is
one of these religions. In Buddhism, we have many doctrines like in all
religions. The Doctrines of Buddhism are Samsara, Reincarnation, and so on. One
of these doctrines, Samsara is kind of the center of the Buddhism religion
belief. The wheel of life in Buddhism is a wheel that shows the view of the
world in Buddhism. It shows, first a big head that represent Yama, who is the
lord of death, has tree eyes, then the tree fires that represent the causes of
suffering, the realm of human that is that human born is the most fortunate
state, then the realm of god who show the different god, the realm of the
hungry ghost, the realm of animal, the hell imagination the dependence origination
and finally the Buddha” ( BBC October 2014). Samsara is considered in Buddhism
as the center of all suffering, where all vanity things happened. Samsara is
the doctrines of Buddhism I would love to extend my knowledge in.
Samsara is the little circle in the middle of
the wheel of life, the one showing three animals. The three-different animal in
samsara are something that push my curiosity to know more about samsara.
Samsara could be thought to be just a snake biting his tail. Surprisingly it is
three distinct animals of different nature: a pig, a snake and a cockerel each
of them biting the other tail. According to Shakya, the pig in Samsara
represent ignorance, the cockerel represent desire, and the snake represent
hatred and jalousie (27 April 2012). The tree animal in Samsara represent all
the bad thing that could happened to one but seeing as a good thing for one.
One see these things meaning hatred, jalousie and greed as regular and normal
life style. For one, hating each other, trying to hurt each other and envying
what someone else has is just a basic life style. While in Buddhism, these represent
a stage of suffering. Samsara is a cycle of life death and reincarnation. According
to Kimberly, “In Buddhism teaching, the reason samsara exists is that people
try to fix themselves and their experiences. It comes from ignorance and it
causes a state of suffering and dissatisfaction” (23 October 2013). Here we can
see that Kimberly explain the reason why Samsara became a doctrine in Buddhism.
Buddhism believe that in order to reach enlightenment, one must overcome all
attachment for anything in human life style.With the cycle of life death and
reincarnation, Buddhism is giving one a chance to overcome samsara, meaning try
to wake up, become detached to all regular human life style and habit for there
are part of the trap of staying forever in Samsara an not use the reincarnation
to escape from it.
The
wheel of life with samsara in the center shows how hard it could be for one to
escape samsara. A snake biting his own tail is something that could explain a
hard outgoing. But samsara shows three different animals. It’s kind of showing
three animals biting their tail, showing in a way that those animals could be
having a competition saying to each other the one who stop biting the tail of
the other one is weakest. None of those animals will want to let one escape
samsara. Not only that, with what they are representing it will be hard for one
to escape. One is really ignorant in a way that it does not know thing but
really do not care about it. In addition, one is always desiring. Even when one
reach what he wants he is always seeking for more and more. It is like a
nonstop desiring. When we take the Buddha himself to reach enlightenment
meaning escape samsara he had to over past desire. The god of desire Mara did
everything to put him in every kind of desire so he could remain in samsara. He
first sent an army of Demon to make the buddha fight meaning wake the desire of
violence in him up. (PBS’s the Buddha)
Mara also sent his three daughters to seduce Siddhartha but Siddhartha did not
fall on that (PBS’s the Buddha). Here we can see that even if one decide to escape samsara, the god
of desire will do everything to stop one from that thought. The god of desire
will in a way persuade one to stay in samsara. And finally, one is more likely
to hate and be jealous about what the other have they don’t. Escape samsara
include leave aside ignorance, desire, and jalousie. These are the three root
of affliction one need to get rid of to escape samsara (Mary pat 76). In
Buddhism, ESCAPE samsara also means to follow the four noble truths which
are “escape Dukkha which is the
suffering and frustration, escape desire, know that unhappiness is inevitable
and the noble eightfold path to liberation”(Mary Pat 74-75). To get rid of
these afflictions one must work on his own, not count on any God or goddesses
for guidance. Escaping Samsara is a conscious effort that one must do by first
starting to admit that unhappiness is part of our life and that desiring is
kind of a sin and is caused by Dukkha a constant dissatisfaction of what we
have. One must also make the effort to accept reality by trying his best to
have a right view of thought. One in addition to a better understanding should
seek of acting in a right way, do to others what is right, make others happy,
leave aside negative judgement of others, make others happy and so on.The
artwork of the wheel of life, especially Samsara with all these details
explaining what really happens in Samsara illuminate the major doctrine of samsara that is within Buddhism. This
artwork shows how samsara may sound easy to escape but is not in reality. It
shows that escaping Samsara will require a lot of conscious effort.
Samsara
is a stage of life one need to escape on his own in Buddhism. The life in
Samsara is a life of dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction is a sort of suffering
because one is not truly happy with what he has. Also in Buddhism one achieve
Nirvana when he escapes Samsara (Mary pat 77). Nirvana is a stage of
enlightenment. Likely in Hinduism there is a stage One is need to escape. This
sage is also call Samsara. Samsara in Buddhism is a stage of “Karma wheel run of birth, rebirth and death”
(Mary Pat 43). Unlike in Buddhism, to escape Samsara, one must achieve Moksha
which is “the liberation from the limitations of space, time, and matter through
realization of the immortal absolute” (Mary Pat 43). Also, one escape Samsara
through the guidance of the god and goddesses while in Buddhism one escape
Samsara by working on his own.
Buddhism,
is a religion that do not have the belief in God or any Goddess existence.
Buddhism does not believe in any god miracle or anything. Buddhism religion
believe in an enlightenment. Buddhism does not believe there is a supreme
person that created the world. For Buddhist, the world and all his living are
created out of nothing. It is just natural. According to the PBS documentary
about the Buddha, Buddhism is a religion that believe in an enlightenment that
one does by himself. The Buddha himself to find that light and wake up, had to
leave his family and his life as a prince. He was born as a prince and did not
know any suffering until the first day he went out and saw a sick man and was
surprised about that (PBS documentary). Starting from there the Buddha wanted
to experience suffering and left his house. Buddhism believe that to experience
the enlightenment one must leave everything. So, like in other religion,
Buddhism also believe that everything in this life is vanity. Suffering and
desire in Buddhism is what people from other religion would call sin. When we
take Hinduism for instance, to achieve Moksha which is a stage when you become
Brahman one has to leave every attachment that keep him in Samsara. The
difference between Buddhism nd other religion is just the non-existence of God.
In addition what Buddhism call Enlightenment is what Hinduism call become a
Brahman. So with all these we can say
that Buddhism is a religion
In
conclusion, Buddhism is a religion that is different than all others in the
terms that it does not recognize any god. It also does not believe in the
origin of things. Buddhism is a religion that could be a little hard to
understand. This research on the doctrine of Samsara in Buddhism helps my
understanding about the Buddhism religion in such a way that it allows me to
look deep into it and know why the escape of samsara require a lot of effort
and also the reason why not everyone could just reach it without effort. Before
I started this course my perception of Buddhism and Hinduism was weird. I
thought there were the same thing called in different language. I also thought
Buddhism believe in gods like Hinduism. I used to watch movies about Hinduism
so when I see Buddhism in a robe and dress a little like Hindu, I thought they
were the same. Also I thought both were just a matter of prayers and stuff.
Taking the course help me see how wrong I was. First because Buddhism and
Hinduism are two different religion. In addition, Hinduism believe in God and
an origin of things. Oppositely, Buddhism belief in no god and emptiness.
Finally, Buddhism believe that on escape suffering by his own effort. From
this class I had realized that having an
opinions about any religion demand research and learning about the religion.
This research has really open my mind to learn more about religion.
Works
cited
BBC
“the concepts of Buddhist religion”. October 2014
Satcheen
Kimberly, “Samsara in Buddhism” on Buddhism Symbol. 23 October 2013
Mary,
Pat “Buddhism” philosophy of religion pp 43, 74-76
Shakya . “the wheel of life.” On thangka-mandala.com,blog. 27 April 2012
Shakya . “the wheel of life.” On thangka-mandala.com,blog. 27 April 2012
The
Buddha. “PBS Documentary” on youtube.com, 5 september 2014
You mention a good point in your argument when you refer to Buddhism being a religion different than Hinduism, and other religions, but I think the part of your argument which may leave questions unanswered is when you state that Buddhism is a religion with the abesense of Gods and that they don't believe in any Gods. Well, this is actually not 100% true. In Buddhism, there may actually be many dieties present. In fact, according to the PBS Buddhism documentary, the Buddha a lot of times was referred to the "teacher of the Gods". Also, as the course reader explains and the documentary depicts, before becoming awakened, "Siddharta was tempted by Mara, the personification of evil" (Fischer 71). This entity which tried to tempt the emerging Buddha, Mara, is typically known as a demonic diety. In addition, as discussed in a class we had when we were discussing Buddhism, it was mentioned that in many Buddhist traditions, they have adopted many Hindu dieties. The Buddha himself was aware of these dieties. So, taking all this into consideration, and being that you claimed there were no Gods in Buddhism, how would you now explain this contradiction? (Since we can see that there are Gods, or dities, present in Buddhism).
ReplyDeleteYou made a point Alex. But we know that in Buddhism one do not achieve Nirvana through the help of any god except one self.In other religion Gods are considered to be this higher being that they could ask or relate to in need of help when facing difficulty. In Buddhism,they may have Gods but do they relate to those gods?Not really. Since Buddhist do not relate to any God during their prayers, in moment of difficulty or joy do they see these God as god?i don't think so.
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ReplyDeleteLearning about the complexities of doctrines and philosophical debates from global religion had helped me gain self-awareness inn such a way that now i know that Buddhism and Hinduism are not the same religion,They may share similarity such as samsara but they are two different religion. In Buddhism, one escape samsara by achieving enlightenment and this is done through by oneself while in Buddhism one escape samsara by achieving Mokha. Also these two religion share karma as common doctrines. The difference is the way they each view Dharma. In Buddhism, Dharma is the boat of knowledge while in Hinduism, it is the ideas of social deities.To sum up each of the global religion are unique in their own way. They may look like they are the same but they're not.
to answer your concern Alex ,you are right but my point is that even if there is God in Buddhism,do they relate to those God as in every other religion?not really.Then if they don't i think this mean that they don't believe i those God which make the Buddhism a religion that is not based on the existence of God.
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