What do Buddhists believe about Samsara?
The root meaning of the term ‘samsara’ suggests the notion of directionless wandering. We are in samsara when we wander without direction. So what is this wandering without direction? It is the wandering and revolving around the Five Skandhas (form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness). The Buddha described this process in this way: “Suppose a dog tied up on a leash was bound to a strong post or pillar: it would just keep on running and revolving around that same post or pillar. So too, the uninstructed worldling regards form as self…feeling as self…perception as self…volitional formations as self…consciousness as self. As he keeps running around [these]…he is not freed from birth, aging, and death…from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; not freed from suffering.” (SN 22:99) If we wish to gain freedom from sorrow and suffering, we must cut the leash of attachment and aversion to form, feeling, perception, formations , and consciousness.
