Jarāmaraṇa isSanskrit andPāli for "old age" (jarā)[1] and "death" (maraṇa).[2] InBuddhism, jaramarana is associated with the inevitable decay and death-related suffering of all beings prior to theirrebirth withinsaṃsāra (cyclic existence).
The wordjarā is related to the older Vedic Sanskrit wordjarā, jaras, jarati, gerā, which means "to become brittle, to decay, to be consumed". The Vedic root is related to the Latingranum, Goth.kaurn, Greekgeras, geros (later geriatric) all of which in one context mean "hardening, old age".[1]
The wordmaraṇa is based on the Vedic Sanskrit rootmṛ,mriyate which means death. The Vedic root is related to later Sanskritmarta, as well as to Germanmord, Lith.mirti, Latinmorior andmors, and Greekμόρος, all of which mean "to die, death".[2]
"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." –DhammacakkappavattanaSutta, Samyutta Nikaya, Translated by Peter Harvey[4]
Elsewhere in thecanon the Buddha further elaborates onJarāmaraṇa (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]
In the BuddhistPali Canon's "Subjects for Contemplation Discourse" (Upajjhatthana Sutta,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 thePali Canon, aging and death affect all beings, includinggods, humans, animals and those born in ahell realm.[7] Only beings who achieve enlightenment (bodhi) in this lifetime escaperebirth in this cycle of birth-and-death (saṃsāra).[8]
^In this translation by John T. Bullit, Bullit leaves the term "dukkha" untranslated. The main article that presents this translation isThe Four Noble Truths.[web 1]
^abThomas William Rhys Davids; William Stede (1921).Pali-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 279.ISBN978-81-208-1144-7.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help); Quote: "old age, decay (in a disparaging sense), decrepitude, wretched, miserable"
^abThomas William Rhys Davids; William Stede (1921).Pali-English Dictionary. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 524.ISBN978-81-208-1144-7.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help); Quote: "death, as ending this (visible) existence, physical death".
^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"
^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.).
^In theUpanisā Sutta (SN 12.23; e.g., trans.,Walshe, 1985), the Buddha describes a set of conditions that leads one from birth to enlightenment. In this "transcendental" sequence that leads out of saṃsāra, birth leads to suffering (dukkha) – instead of aging-and-death – which in turn leads to faith (saddha), whichBhikkhu Bodhi describes as "essentially an attitude of trust and commitment directed to ultimate emancipation"(Bodhi, 1980).
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