in Indian philosophy, the central conception of metempsychosis. It refers in Hinduism and Jainism to the career of the soul, which, once it has fallen from its original state ofself-consciousness and bliss, is bornas any creature and continues to be reborn until it has found release (mokṣa) from the bonds of its past deeds (karman). Buddhism, which does not assume the existence of apermanent soul, accepts a semipermanent personality core that goes through the process of saṃsāra.
The Sāṃkhya school of Hindu philosophy has worked out certaindetails of this transmigration process. It assumes the existence oftwo bodies, a “gross” one (sthūla), which is the material body, and a “subtle” one, which is immaterial. When the gross body has perished, the subtle one survives and migrates to another gross body; this subtle body consists of the higher psychomaterial functions of buddhi (“consciousness”), ahaṃkāra (“I-consciousness”), manas (“mind as coordinator of sense impressions”), and prāṇa (“breath”), the principle of vitality.
The range of saṃsāra stretches from the lowliest insect (sometimes the vegetable and mineral kingdoms are included) to Brahmā, the highest of the gods, for they also are involved in transmigration. The rank of one's birth in the hierarchy of life depends on the quality of the previous life. After death the soul first goes for a sojourn to a heaven or hell until it has consumed most of its good or bad karman. Then it returns to a new womb, the remainder of its karman having determined the circumstances of its next life. In theory this allows for the possibility of remembering one's previous lives (jātismara), a talent that great saints possess or can cultivate. Typical of this belief are the so-called Jātaka stories, in which the Buddha gives accounts of his previous lives.
