It almost certainly has nothing to do with life or rebirth. And the characters in the JP side of the client most definitely do not mean "lively." I'm not sure where anyone is getting that meaning, unless from some tortured attempt to graft Buddhist reincarnation into it from the metaphorical "wheel of suffering" aspect.
I will point out that the Japanese wikipedia entry for "ninja"
mentions aisha (哀車の術), with the terse definition "to invite the pity of others," a conversational trick designed (ostensibly) to lure the soft-hearted into dropping their guard.