Samsara and Manana

Thinking that we can find some lasting pleasure

and avoid pain is what in Buddhism is called samsara,

a hopeless cycle that goes round and round

endlessly and causes us to suffer greatly.

-Pema Chodron

I have heard a number of definitions for samsara such as samsara being the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth that Buddhists want to escape by reaching Nirvana. I have heard that samsara literally means activity and I would like to expand on that definition by adding that we engage in a lot of activity and we feel like we are spinning our wheels getting nowhere. I get up five days a week to go to work in order to maintain a certain lifestyle that would not be there the moment I decided to stop working. I pay bills that only return the following month and the month after that. I can be a nonsmoker as long as I continually choose not to take a cigarette. (I have also decided to quit smoking this weekend.) Much of our energy is spent on maintenance, not getting ahead of the game. Eventually, in the end, everything decays, even quicker if we do not spend that time on maintenance. We maintain our health, our standard of living, our homes, our cars, our relationships, etc and none of it is permanent. But in samsara, we die and are reborn only to redo it all over again.

As for the quote, I have been living in such a way that I deny pain, however slight. Manana (tomorrow) is my motto. Sometimes in life we have to face the unpleasant and mundane. Then we can enjoy some respite from suffering as we enjoy the fruits of our labours. As long as we are not averse to suffering and not overly attached to enjoyment, then this life can be ok.