[vladekad]

Welcome to the forum peace and daisies!

I think Aloka has explained well enough about cyclic existence and the idea of being into samsara.

I like this quote so to make us reflect about it:

1. I walk down the street,
there is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in. I am lost... I am hopeless
It isn't my fault...
I takes forever to find a way out.

2. I walk down the same street
there is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I pretend I don't see,
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place.
But it is not my fault,
It still takes a long time to go out.

3. I walk down the same street
There is a deep whole in the sidewalk,
I see it is there,
I still fall in... it is a habit!
My eyes are open
I know where I am
It is my fault,
I get out immediately.

4. I walk down the street,
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I walk around it.

5. I walk down the street.

"Autobiography in Five Chapters", by Portia Nelson, quoted by Sogyal Rimpoche in "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", p.31 or in the Buddha's Words so to illustrate how samsara and cycle existence are both related because our ignorance about our mental states:

1. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

2. Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

Dhammapada; the pairs: vv 1 and 2.