Saṃsāra and Rebirth

Lesson 14 ended with a question. If action shapes the actor, and a single life is short, over what span does the shaping run? The answer the tradition gives is saṃsāra.

Saṃsāra is built from sam + √sṛ, to flow or move together, and the lexicon gives it as "going or wandering through, undergoing transmigration", then "course, passage, passing through a succession of states, circuit of mundane existence" — and, notably, also "the world, secular life".

Two things follow immediately.

The primary image is wandering, not returning. English "reincarnation" puts the emphasis on getting a new body; the Sanskrit puts it on not getting anywhere.