The problem of aging in early Buddhism: Doctrinal meaning and contemporary implications of jarā-maraṇa in the Nikāyas

This paper examines the problem of aging in early Buddhism through an analysis of the concept of jarā-maraṇa (aging-death) as presented in the Pāli Nikāyas. While contemporary gerontology tends to frame aging primarily as a process of biological decline to be managed or overcome, the early Buddhist texts treat aging and death as inevitable conditions of human existence and as a starting point for liberating insight. Employing a philological approach combined with comparative reading across the Nikāyas, this study first analyzes the etymology, usage, and canonical definitions of jarā and maraṇa, including the formulaic definition of the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22), and clarifies the semantic structure of the compound jarā-maraṇa. The study then locates the concept within the doctrinal framework of early Buddhism: as a paradigmatic mode of dukkha in the First Noble Truth, and as the final link of the twelvefold formula of dependent arising (paṭiccasamuppāda), conditioned by birth (jāti). It is argued that the canonical formula presents a directional relation of conditionality rather than a symmetrical interdependence, so that jarā-maraṇa functions as the analytical unit from which the chain of conditions is traced backward. The paper then interprets aging through the Three Marks of Existence—impermanence (anicca), non-self (anattā), and dukkha—showing that the aging body offers a privileged field in which these marks are experientially verified, and analyzes the Jarāvagga of the Dhammapada (vv. 146–156) together with practices such as mindfulness of death (maraṇasati). The paper concludes that early Buddhism transforms aging from an object of avoidance into an occasion for practice and insight, and draws out the implications of this understanding for mental health, care ethics, and spiritual well-being in contemporary aging societies.