Definition: Saṁsāra names the continuous process of birth, death, and rebirth that beings undergo while ignorance and craving are unresolved. It is not a place but a process — the continuous "flowing-on" of conditioned existence. Its cessation is nibbāna.
Canonical usage
Dhp 60 (dhp60:3–60:4)
Dīgho bālāna saṁsāro, saddhammaṁ avijānataṁ.
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English (Sujato): Transmigration is long for fools who don't understand the true teaching.
Dhp 153 (dhp153:1) (cited; not yet ingested)
Anekajātisaṁsāraṁ, sandhāvissaṁ anibbisaṁ.
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English (Sujato, paraphrased): Through countless births in transmigration I wandered, not finding…
SN 15.3 (cited; not yet ingested)
Anamataggoyaṁ, bhikkhave, saṁsāro.
— "Beginningless, monks, is this transmigration."
Nuances and translation notes
- Sujato: "transmigration"
- Buddharakkhita: "samsara" (preserved untranslated)
- Bodhi: "samsara" / "the round"
- Norman (PTS): "wandering-on" / "transmigration"
- de Zoysa (Sinhala): සංසාර — direct cognate
The literal sense — "continuous flowing" — matters: saṁsāra is process-not-place, which matters doctrinally because the kammic continuity of saṁsāra is not a substantial soul persisting but a conditioned stream. English "reincarnation" (implying a persisting self) is therefore doctrinally misleading; "rebirth" or "transmigration" are preferred.
Related concepts
- nibbana — its cessation; the structural antonym
- punabbhava — re-becoming; the mechanism of saṁsāra (pending)
- jati — birth; one of the twelve nidānas (pending)
- avijja — ignorance; the root driver of saṁsāra (pending)
- tanha — craving; the conditioning driver (pending)
Related pages
- dhammapada 05 balavagga — Dhp 60