Jarāmaraṇa

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Translations of
jarāmaraṇa
Englishold age and death
Tibetan
རྒ་ཤི་
(THL: ga.shi
Wylie: rga.shi)
Tagalogkalamalana
Thaiชรามรณะ
(RTGS: chrā mrṇa)
Vietnamesetuổi già và cái chết
Glossary of Buddhism

Jarāmaraṇa is

saṃsāra
(cyclic existence).

Jarā and maraṇa are identified as the twelfth link within the

Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.[3]

Etymology

The word jarā is related to the older Vedic Sanskrit word jarā, jaras, jarati, gerā, which means "to become brittle, to decay, to be consumed". The Vedic root is related to the Latin granum, Goth. kaurn, Greek geras, geros (later geriatric) all of which in one context mean "hardening, old age".[1]

The word maraṇa is based on the Vedic Sanskrit root mṛ, mriyate which means death. The Vedic root is related to later Sanskrit marta, as well as to German mord, Lith. mirti, Latin morior and mors, and Greek μόρος, all of which mean "to die, death".[2]

Within the Four Noble Truths

Within the teachings on the

dukkha (suffering, anxiety, unsatisfactoriness). For example, The Discourse That Sets Turning the Wheel of Truth
states:

"Now this, bhikkhus, for the spiritually ennobled ones, is the true reality which is pain: birth is painful, aging is painful, illness is painful, death is painful; sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, unhappiness and distress are painful; union with what is disliked is painful; separation from what is liked is painful; not to get what one wants is painful; in brief, the five bundles of grasping-fuel are painful." –
Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya, Translated by Peter Harvey[4]

Elsewhere in the canon the Buddha further elaborates on Jarāmaraṇa (aging and death):[a]

"And what is aging? Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging.
"And what is death? Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death."[5]

Within the twelve links of dependent origination

 
The 12 Nidānas:
  
Ignorance
↓
Formations
↓
Consciousness
↓
Name & Form
↓
Six Sense Bases
↓
Contact
↓
Feeling
↓
Craving
↓
Clinging
↓
Becoming
↓
Birth
↓
Old Age & Death
 

Jarāmaraṇa is the last of the

jāti
), meaning that all who are born are destined to age and die.

Texts

In the Buddhist

AN
5.57), the Buddha enjoins followers to reflect often on the following:

I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging....
I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness....
I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death....[6]

In the

bodhi) in this lifetime escape rebirth in this cycle of birth-and-death (saṃsāra).[8]

As what the

SN
3.25):

Like massive boulders,
mountains pressing against the sky,
moving in from all sides,
crushing the four directions,
so aging and death
come rolling over living beings:
noble warriors, brahmins, merchants,
workers, outcastes, & scavengers.
They spare nothing.
They trample everything.
So a wise person seeing his own good,
steadfast, secures confidence
in the Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha.
One who practices the Dhamma in thought, word, & deed,
receives praise here on earth and after death rejoices in heaven.[9]

The Dhammapada has one chapter known as "Jaravagga", that consisted of eleven verses about old age, (from verse 146 to 156).[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In this translation by John T. Bullit, Bullit leaves the term "dukkha" untranslated. The main article that presents this translation is The Four Noble Truths.[web 1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-81-208-1144-7
    .; Quote: "old age, decay (in a disparaging sense), decrepitude, wretched, miserable"
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-81-208-1144-7
    .; Quote: "death, as ending this (visible) existence, physical death".
  3. ISBN 978-0-89281-553-1
    .
  4. Mahasatipatthana Sutta Alternate translation: Piyadassi (1999)
  5. DN 22 (Thanissaro, 2000)
    .
  6. ^ AN 5.57 (trans. Thanissaro, 1997b). Elided from this text is the recurring phrase: "... one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained"
  7. ^ In other words, one of the significant distinctions between the cosmologies of Buddhist or Indian religions and Abrahamic religions is that, in Indian religions, even gods and hell-born beings age and die in their respective realms and are destined to be reborn, possibly in another realm (whether hell, earth, heaven, etc.).
  8. saddha), which Bhikkhu Bodhi describes as "essentially an attitude of trust and commitment directed to ultimate emancipation" (Bodhi, 1980).
  9. SN 3.25 (trans., Thanissaro, 1997).
  10. ^ Dhp 146-156 (trans., Buddharakkhita, 1996).

Web references

  1. ^ Four Noble Truths Links to each line in the translation are as follows: line 1: First Noble Truth; line 2: Second Noble Truth; line 3: Third Noble Truth; line 4: Fourth Noble Truth.

Sources

Preceded by
Jāti
Twelve Nidānas

Jarāmaraṇa 		Succeeded by
Avidyā
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