Common misconception

Samsara is not only future lives; it is the moment-to-moment cycle of craving and becoming you live now.

The question it leaves you holding

If nothing in the world stays, why do we keep expecting it to satisfy us?

Schools that center this concept

• Samkhya — The oldest analysis: countless conscious selves (purusha) entangled in one unconscious nature (prakriti).
• Advaita Vedanta — Shankara's non-dualism: only Brahman is real; the individual self is that one Self, mistaking itself as many.
• Dvaita Vedanta — Madhva's dualism: God, souls, and matter are eternally distinct; liberation is loving nearness, not merger.

Questions to explore

• What actually keeps the wheel of samsara turning, in each school?
• Is rebirth a literal claim or a way of describing craving?