The Noble Truth of Suffering : 2. Suffering as a result of Aging [jara dukkha]

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The Noble Truth of Suffering :

2. Suffering as a result of Aging [jara dukkha]

 

 

Suffering as a result of Aging [jara dukkha]

 

The lord Buddha defined Suffering resulting from aging as the form of suffering that has the characteristic of deterioration of the bodily organs and faculties such alarming symptoms as the hair turning grey, teeth breaking. Sunken cheeks, dry and wrinkled skin and deafness. The real process of aging is invisible to the naked eye. Only with the eye of insight developed through meditation can aging be seen.

 

Metaphors for Suffering as a result of Aging

 

1. A Forest Fire: Aging is like an inferno which burns a forest to ashes before disappearing without trace. The flames are not a part of the forest or the ashes – and with aging we see only the results of the work (i.e. the symptoms of age) without being able to see the culprit. In fact aging is at work the whole of the time even in young people but it is  only in their old age (when their hair turns grey etc.) that they realize the presence of aging (like noticing a fire only when it has already reduced the forest to ashes.)

 

 

the hair turning grey, teeth breaking. Sunken cheeks, dry

 

2. A Flood or a Storm which carries away forest debris: In just the same way as a flash flood inundates a forest or a storm tears down branches and leaves in a forest and sweeps them away, leaving the debris somewhere else only when the flood has subsided or the storm has passed can people see the debris left behind by the flood and know that the forest has been damaged by that flood or storm. In just the same way, it is only when we see someone losing their teeth, with hollow cheeks, sunken eyeballs, deaf ears, a delapitated body, grey hair and wrinkled, baggy skin that we realize that aging has done its work.

 

In conclusion, we can say that in general, we don’t realize that aging is affecting is affecting us the whole of the time, whether we are awake or asleep. We only realize when the results of aging’s work become manifest to the naked eye.

 

Another characteristic of aging is that it gradually increases the time that has elapsed in our lives and reduces the time left to go until our death. Just like the shuttle of the weaver advances the woof, adding to the woven cloth but detracting from the unwoven warp, aging takes away the remaining years of our life, adding them to the years elapsed. If a person had a lifespan of a hundred years, when a day passes, they have one less day to go until their hundred years is up When a month passes, they have one less month to go until their hundred years is up. When a year passes, they have one less year to go until their hundred years is up (they have only 99 years left to go.) In conclusion aging drives all living beings relentlessly towards their dying day – all the way from the day of their birth we are already counting down to the day of our death.

 

 

Only with the eye of insight developed through meditation can aging be seen.

 

Furthermore, aging causes the deterioration and clouding of the six senses and the deterioration of the thirty-two parts of the body. Causing the body to become shriveled and unattractive.

 

In actual fact, this house that is our body, has craving [tanha] as its builder – right from the foundations at the bones of the feet up to the bones of the legs as its supporting pillars The hips are the beams. The ribs are the rafters. The collar bones are the column beams. The neck vertebra are the roof shield. The cranium is the gable peak. The neck vertebra are the roof shield. The cranium is the gable peak. The arms are the gable weatherboards. The skin covering our trunk is like the roofing thatch, fastened down with the skewers of the tendons. The whole home is plastered with flesh and blood.

 

Our house has nine doors, namely: two eye sockets, two earholes, two nostrils, a mouth, the urinary tract and the anus. The five windows are those of the outer senses, namely: eyes, ears, nose, mouth and touch. The whole structure is weatherproofed with a coating of ‘taco’, in other words, our skin, given its covering of the white and yellow powders (presumably for skin care) of cumin and talcum. The mind is the owner of this house and is the real ‘us’.

 

 

 

However, later in life, the same rays of aging bring us skin which is wrinkled and dry

 

When the stormy gales of aging begin to blow, the house is vulnerable. The house shakes in the face of the storm and is subject to storm damage which is cumulative in its toll with every passing day. The body becomes slower in movement between the four postures, and the body loses its vitality. The body groans as one stands up or sits down loses its vitality. The body groans as one stands up or sits down or walks along, because of the various afflictions of suffering which one must bear.

 

When the sun shines in the morning, all the different flowers of the meadow and the water, open up their petals to welcome its rays. However, when the rays of the sun be come hotter, the same flowers become withered by the heat. Even the moon which is so bright with its own radiance must hide itself away when the sun rises. The time of the rising sun is comparable to our youth when our body is still fresh, and when we are still strong and healthy. However, later in life, the same rays of aging bring us skin which is wrinkled and dry, dull and unattractive like the flowers withered by the extended heat of the day.

 

All these are ways in which aging brings misery to living beings.

 

to be continued...

 

 

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