Jarāmaraṇa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Jarāmaraṇa is Sanskrit and Pāli for "old age and decay" (jarā) and "dying and death" (maraṇa). In Buddhism, jaramarana refers to the inevitable end-of-life suffering of all beings prior to their rebirth in the cycle of saṃsāra.

Synonyms:

老死 Cn: láosǐ; Jp: rōshi; Vi: lão tử
Tibetan: rgas.shi

1 Truth of suffering
2 Conditioned cycle of suffering
3 See also
4 Notes
5 Sources

[edit] Truth of suffering

The goal of Buddhism is liberation from suffering (dukkha). The Buddha's prescription for achieving this liberation can be found in his Four Noble Truths (dukkhasacca). In his First Noble Truth, he describes what is meant by "suffering" using the following formula found repeatedly in the Buddhist scriptures:

"The Noble Truth of Suffering (dukkha), monks, is this: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering..., death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering — in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering."^[1]

Elsewhere in the canon the Buddha further elaborates:

"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."^[2]

[edit] Conditioned cycle of suffering

Jarāmaraṇa is the twelfth and last of the Twelve Nidānas, conditioned by Birth jāti, meaning that all things that are born are mortal and of a nature to die; this includes all beings in the universe, gods as well as humans and animals. Beings who do not achieve enlightenment in this lifetime or enlightened beings who choose to be reborn (bodhisattva) to aid others in their pursuit of liberation will be reborn into the cycle of samsara.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

^ Boldface added. This formula can be found, for instance, in the Buddha's first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (Piyadassi, 1999), as well as in his famed Mahasatipatthana Sutta (Thanissaro, 2000). (Note that the former sutta also includes the phrase "... sickness is suffering ..." which has been elided from the quote used in this article to reflect the common text between the two identified discourses.)
^ See, for instance, SN 12.2 (Thanissaro, 1997) and DN 22 (Thanissaro, 2000).

[edit] Sources

Piyadassi Thera (trans.) (1999). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth (SN 56.11). Retrieved 2007-06-13 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.piya.html.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1997). Paticca-samuppada-vibhanga Sutta: Analysis of Dependent Co-arising (SN 12.2). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/samyutta/sn-12-002-tb0.html.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). Maha-satipatthana Sutta: The Great Frames of Reference (DN 22). Retrieved 2007-06-20 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.22.0.than.html.