The Wheel of Samsara: For my money, one of the coolest HowStuffWorks.com animated infographics published last year as part of my article “How Sky Burial Works.” Follow this link and you can use the animation to explore the worlds beyond death in Tibetan Buddhism: http://is.gd/w789de
The wheel illustrates the six ways in which desire shackles us to the vicious circle of samsara and the six realms through which every life passes in an endless chain of death and rebirth. These six segments include three upper realms of humans, gods and demigods, as well as three lower ones of animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings. Buddhists believe that a person remains bound to this chain until, through Buddha’s noble eightfold path to enlightenment, he or she achieves Nirvana and rises above the wheel.
There’s a non-narrative film by the name of Samsara out in limited release in the U.S. — it explores the earthly realms of desire. Here’s the trailer:
Robert wrote a review of the film for the Stuff to Blow Your Mind blog — check it out here.
