SAMSARA

( (Sanskrit: the running around),) in Indian philosophy, the central conception of metempsychosis. It refers in Hinduism and Jainism to the career of the soul, which, once it has fallen from its original state of self-consciousness and bliss, is born as any creature and continues to be reborn until it has found release (moksa) from the bonds of its past deeds (karman). Buddhism, which does not assume the existence of a permanent soul, accepts a semipermanent personality core that goes through the process of samsara. The Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy has worked out certain details of this transmigration process. It assumes the existence of two bodies, a gross one (sthula), which is the material body, and a subtle one, which is immaterial. When the gross body has perished, the subtle one survives and migrates to another gross body; this subtle body consists of the higher psychomaterial functions of buddhi (consciousness), ahamkara (I-consciousness), manas (mind as coordinator of sense impressions), and prana (breath), the principle of vitality. The range of samsara stretches from the lowliest insect (sometimes the vegetable and mineral kingdoms are included) to Brahma, the highest of the gods, for they also are involved in transmigration. The rank of one's birth in the hierarchy of life depends on the quality of the previous life. After death the soul first goes for a sojourn to a heaven or hell until it has consumed most of its good or bad karman. Then it returns to a new womb, the remainder of its karman having determined the circumstances of its next life. In theory this allows for the possibility of remembering one's previous lives (jatismara), a talent that great saints possess or can cultivate. Typical of this belief are the so-called Jataka stories, in which the Buddha gives accounts of his previous lives.