The Wheel of Suffering
This very body is your cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra). When the death-consciousness (cuti-citta) arises in this life and you die, that will be the final scene. Death is the Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha sacca). After death, to continue saṃsāra, rebirth-linking (paṭisandhi) will approach. According to one’s kamma, one will take rebirth-linking in a mother’s womb. Rebirth-linking is birth (jāti), and birth is also the Noble Truth of Suffering. We die with suffering and live with suffering. Aging (jarā) is suffering. Pain, sores, aches, and afflictions are suffering. When pain becomes unbearable and death approaches, death itself is suffering. Does death mean it’s over? No, it is not. The suffering of rebirth-linking in the next life returns again. Therefore, understand this: saṃsāra is the relentless turning of the great Wheel of Suffering. People speak of human realms, deva realms, brahma realms, and lower realms (apāya), but the actual reality of how saṃsāra revolves is this: the grea...
