Suduiko, A. (2014, December 10). You don’t have to know anything about Buddhism to appreciate “Majora’s Mask,” but it helps. With A Terrible Fate. https://withaterriblefate.com/2014/12/10/you-dont-have-to-know-anything-about-buddhism-to-appreciate-majoras-mask-but-it-helps/
All previous posts have been limited to understanding Majora ([[Majora's Mask]]) within the context of the artifact itself. Meaning, little to no comparisons are made outside of the metaphysics that the game itself presents. This is done, in part, to not assume any authorial intent.
However, using Buddhism as a lens to view Majora is also an instructive activity. If Termina is considered to be samsara, then the path Link follows through the game has many parallels to Bodhisattva.
"The wheel of samsara" has a prallel in the many cycles present in Majora. The circle of the clock tower, the repeating three day cycle, dying and being born again at each renewed cycle, etc. Additionally, the Buddhist conception of time is cyclical - continually declining and renewing. Link's journey literally parallels the idea that the world is in constant decline and the people are working to renew it through multiple incarnations of themselves.
There are six walks of samsara, and each of them are represented in the six main areas of Majora:
One cool nugget to pull out here is that, while we have previously made the case that Link is a different Link in each new timeline ([[Mister Owl free will and determinism]]), so too are all the other citizens of Termina different incarnations in each renewed timeline.
People are reincarnated into different walks of samsara, based on the actions taken in past lives (karma) and the general influence of suffering, it follows that the entity manifested as the mailman (as an example) in one timeline is not necessarily the same entity perceived as the mailman in another timeline.
What this means is that Link can save people permanently. He may save them in one timeline, and then it's another entity that inhabits the body of that person in a new timeline. So the one that was saved was actually saved, but another person in their path through samsara in need of saving enters the body of the Terminian in the next cycle.
Link can save people, but not everyone in the universe - a fundamental principle of Buddhism.
Masks are compared to "skillful means," a Buddhist concept which means that people need to be taught in the context they will most bestly learn. Even if that means lying to a person, if it saves them it's worth the deception. (eg. Posing as Darunia to a hurting tribe of Gorons.)