lộn kiếp

Definition

1. Verb phrase:
   • To be reborn into a previous life: A Buddhist concept referring to the phenomenon of a soul or consciousness returning to a life it has already lived, reversing the normal forward progression of reincarnation.
   • To have one's fate or life circumstance drastically reversed: Used figuratively to describe a situation where someone's social status, fortune, or life condition changes so completely it is as if they have been reborn into a different, often opposite, state of existence.

Usage Examples

• Verb phrase:
  • Theo truyền thuyết, vị sư đó có thể lộn kiếp để sửa chữa lỗi lầm kiếp trước. (According to legend, that monk could be reborn into a previous life to correct mistakes from a past incarnation.)
  • Từ một tỷ phú, ông ấy phá sản và phải đi ăn xin, đúng là lộn kiếp. (From a billionaire, he went bankrupt and had to beg, it's truly a complete reversal of fate.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is primarily used in religious, philosophical, or highly figurative contexts. It is not a common term for everyday "change."

Variants and Related Words

• Đầu thai (v): to be reincarnated, to transmigrate (the standard forward progression into a new life).
• Luân hồi (n): samsara; the cycle of death and rebirth.

Synonyms

• To regress (in rebirth): to return to a former state in the cycle of reincarnation.
• To have one's life turned upside down: (figurative) to experience a total and often negative transformation.

Related Idioms

• Sống lại kiếp trước: to live a past life again (a more descriptive phrase for the same concept).
• Đảo lộn số phận: to have one's destiny overturned (shares the figurative meaning of a drastic change in circumstance).