Introduction

Buddhism borrowed from the earlier Indian religious context two pivotal concepts of Karman and Samsara, which provides a coherent model of the function and structure of the universe, which in turn forms the basis for the Buddhist explanations of the path of liberation from the world.

Sacred texts and other main texts: the Sutras

A Sutra is a sacred text of Buddhism said to contain the discourses of the Buddha as heard by his disciples. Apart from Sutra, Buddhist texts can also be classified as Vinaya, (monastic regulations) or Shastra, doctrinal treatises.

Acknowledged authority: the Incipit of a Sutra

Every Sutra, regardless of the origin, language, or date of production, starts with the phrase: "Thus I have heard". The Buddhist tradition holds that Ananda, the beloved disciples of Buddha, memorized each discourse, so that when time came to put them down in written form, he started his recitation with the phrase "thus I have heard (from the Master)". This is the traditional phrase that sanctions the authority of a Buddhist text as a Sutra, and it is found also in texts obviously postdating the death of Buddha.

Main doctrinal tenets:  The Cycle of rebirth

Like Hindus, also for Buddhists all beings are doomed to death and rebirth in a recurring cycle over countless ages (the Samsara). Buddhism in particular divides the possibilities of rebirth in six states of existence. Unless they attain enlightenment, all beings are reborn after death into a lower or a higher realm, depending on their actions while still alive. This involves the concept of Karman and Karmic Retribution.

Main doctrinal tenets: Karman

The theory of Karman, another borrowing from earlier Hinduism, is the universal law of cause and effect, which binds man to his deeds. According to the theory of retribution of the acts, the actions that man performs have effect on him in the present and also in the future life. This effect could be positive, negative, or neutral. In each case, it binds man to the cycle of rebirth.

"Sources" Analysis and comment

Source 1: Excerpts from "Itivuttaka: The Group of Ones" (Iti 1-27)

"Blessed One" is the most common epithet found in Sutras; and "Arahat", is a technical term that indicate the person who has attained enlightenment.

The contents of the Sutra explain the fundamental idea of the cycle of rebirth. Man is entrapped inside the Samsara because of the attachment to the world. This attachment leads to actions, that create Karman, that lead to subsequent rebirths.

Source 2: Excerpts from "Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta: The Shorter Exposition of Kamma" (MN 135)

This Sutra deals with the ethical dimension of the Karman mechanism in the cycle of Rebirth, which explains why human condition varies from poor to rich, healthy to sick and so on. The Karmic mechanism is a important doctrinal point also for lay people who maybe can't afford to take the difficult spiritual path towards enlightenment, but nonetheless can hope for a better rebirth as a retribution for a righteous life.

Source 3: Wheel of Samsara

The Bhavacakra ("Wheel of existence") are symbolic diagrams typical of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. These powerful images summarize the fundamentals tenets of Buddhism. Here we will deal only  with the representation of the six realms of rebirth, in which the Samsara is divided, that occupy the biggest layer of the wheel, divided in six sections. The fierce being holding the wheel is Yama, the god of death, which symbolize the impermanent nature of the cycle of rebirth (that is, always in motion).

These six realms can be divided into three higher realms and three lower realms. The three lower realms are:

1) Beings in Hell. The lowest and worst realm, wracked by torture and characterized by aggression. 

2) Hungry Ghosts. The realm of hungry spirits; characterized by great craving and eternal starvation. Their appearance is a metaphor for their mental situation: they have enormous appetites, signified by their gigantic bellies, but can't satisfy those appetites, because of their slender necks.

3) Animals. The realm of animals and livestock, characterized by stupidity  servitude and fear of being eaten by other animals.

The three higher realms are:

4) Ashura.  The realm of anger, jealousy, and constant war; the Ashura are demigods, semi-blessed beings; they are powerful, fierce and quarrelsome.

5) Humans. The human realm. Even if most of humans are blinded and consumed by their desires, the human realm is considered to be the most suitable realm for practicing the teachings of Buddha, because humans are not completely distracted by pleasure (like the gods) or by pain and suffering (like the beings in the lower realms).

6) Devas. The realm of heavenly beings filled with bliss. Devas are another borrowing from Hinduism.  They live for countless ages, but even the Devas belong to Samsara and thus grow old and die. Because they are distracted in meaningless pleasures, they forget to practice the teachings of Buddha and eventually are reborn in lower realms.

These realms can be understood  as aspects of Buddhist cosmology and at the same time on the psychological level:

pride (Devas), jealousy (Ashura), desire (Human), ignorance (animals), greed (hungry ghost), and anger (Beings in Hell).

Intercultural, interdisciplinary information

There is no Buddhist myth about how the universe was originally created, as the Buddhist universe has no beginning in the sense that the Christian universe does. Early Buddhism shared an understanding of time and the nature of the universe with early-Hinduism of the time, which taught that the universe had been created and destroyed over and over again. Buddhism has thus a so-called cyclical vision of time. In contrast, Judaism, Christianity and lslam have a historical vision of time: world has a origin, a development upon which God acts, and an end.
Moreover, especially for the first Buddhism, the metaphysical question such as the finitude or eternity of the world are rejected as non important and as mere distractions towards the liberation from suffering.

Link to other modules
Christianity II .Themes section 3
Judaism II. Themes section 2
Islam I . History section 4, 5
Islam II Themes section 3

To go Deeper

This link leads to a web page where the arguments presented in this page and in section 4 are explained in a interactive Image of a Wheel of Life. Other more-in depth-arguments are also provided.

http://languagecenter.emory.edu/languages/tibetan_samsara/