(7) Mindfulness of Death

1. [229] Now comes the description of the development of mindfulness of death, which was listed next (III.105).

[Definitions]

Herein, death (maraṇa) is the interruption of the life faculty included within [the limits of] a single becoming (existence). But death as termination (cutting off), in other words, the Arahant’s termination of the suffering of the round, is not intended here, nor is momentary death, in other words, the momentary dissolution of formations, nor the “death” of conventional (metaphorical) usage in such expressions as “dead tree,” “dead metal,” and so on.

2. As intended here it is of two kinds, that is to say, timely death and untimely death. Herein, timely death comes about with the exhaustion of merit or with the exhaustion of a life span or with both. Untimely death comes about through kamma that interrupts [other, life-producing] kamma.

3. Herein, death through exhaustion of merit is a term for the kind of death that comes about owing to the result of [former] rebirth-producing kamma’s having finished ripening although favourable conditions for prolonging the continuity of a life span may be still present. Death through exhaustion of a life span is a term for the kind of death that comes about owing to the exhaustion of the normal life span of men of today, which measures only a century owing to want of such excellence in destiny [as deities have] or in time [as there is at the beginning of an aeon] or in nutriment [as the Uttarakurus and so on have].^[1] Untimely death is a term for the death of those whose continuity is interrupted by kamma capable of causing them to fall (cāvana) from their place at that very moment, as in the case of Dūsi-Māra (see M I 337), Kalāburājā (see J-a III 39), etc.,^[2] or for the death of those whose [life’s] continuity is interrupted by assaults with weapons, etc., due to previous kamma. [230] All these are included under the interruption of the life faculty of the kinds already stated. So mindfulness of death is the remembering of death, in other words, of the interruption of the life faculty.

[Development]

4. One who wants to develop this should go into solitary retreat and exercise attention wisely in this way: “Death will take place; the life faculty will be interrupted,” or “Death, death.”

5. If he exercises his attention unwisely in recollecting the [possible] death of an agreeable person, sorrow arises, as in a mother on recollecting the death of her beloved child she bore; and gladness arises in recollecting the death of a disagreeable person, as in enemies on recollecting the death of their enemies; and no sense of urgency arises on recollecting the death of neutral people, as happens in a corpse-burner on seeing a dead body;and anxiety arises on recollecting one’s own death, as happens in a timid person on seeing a murderer with a poised dagger.

6. In all that there is neither mindfulness nor sense of urgency nor knowledge. So he should look here and there at beings that have been killed or have died, and advert to the death of beings already dead but formerly seen enjoying good things, doing so with mindfulness, with a sense of urgency and with knowledge, after which he can exercise his attention in the way beginning, “Death will take place.” By so doing he exercises it wisely. He exercises it as a [right] means, is the meaning.^[3]

7. When some exercise it merely in this way, their hindrances get suppressed, their mindfulness becomes established with death as its object, and the meditation subject reaches access.

[Eight Ways of Recollecting Death]

8. But one who finds that it does not get so far should do his recollecting of death in eight ways, that is to say: (1) as having the appearance of a murderer, (2) as the ruin of success, (3) by comparison, (4) as to sharing the body with many, (5) as to the frailty of life, (6) as signless, (7) as to the limitedness of the extent, (8) as to the shortness of the moment.

9. 1. Herein, as having the appearance of a murderer: he should do his recollecting thus, “Just as a murderer appears with a sword, thinking, ‘I shall cut this man’s head off,’ and applies it to his neck, so death appears.” Why? Because it comes with birth and it takes away life.

10. As budding toadstools always come up lifting dust on their tops, so beings are born along with aging and death. For accordingly their rebirth-linking consciousness reaches aging immediately next to its arising and then breaks up together with its associated aggregates, like a stone that falls from the summit of a rock. [231] So to begin with, momentary death comes along with birth. But death is inevitable for what is born; consequently the kind of death intended here also comes along with birth.

11. Therefore, just as the risen sun moves on towards its setting and never turns back even for a little while from wherever it has got to, or just as a mountain torrent sweeps by with a rapid current, ever flowing and rushing on and never turning back even for a little while, so too this living being travels on towards death from the time when he is born, and he never turns back even for a little while. Hence it is said:

“Right from the very day a man
Has been conceived inside a womb
He cannot but go on and on,
Nor going can he once turn back” (J-a IV 494).

12. And whilst he goes on thus death is as near to him as drying up is to rivulets in the summer heat, as falling is to the fruits of trees when the sap reaches their attachments in the morning, as breaking is to clay pots tapped by a mallet, as vanishing is to dewdrops touched by the sun’s rays. Hence it is said:

“The nights and days go slipping by
As life keeps dwindling steadily
Till mortals’ span, like water pools
In failing rills, is all used up” (S I 109).

“As there is fear, when fruits are ripe,
That in the morning they will fall,
So mortals are in constant fear,
When they are born, that they will die.
And as the fate of pots of clay
Once fashioned by the potter’s hand,
Or small or big or baked or raw,^[4]
Condemns them to be broken up,
So mortals’ life leads but to death” (Sn p. 576f.).

“The dewdrop on the blade of grass
Vanishes when the sun comes up;
Such is a human span of life;
So, mother, do not hinder me” (J-a IV 122).

13. So this death, which comes along with birth, is like a murderer with poised sword. And like the murderer who applies the sword to the neck, it carries off life and never returns to bring it back. [232] That is why, since death appears like a murderer with poised sword owing to its coming along with birth and carrying off life, it should be recollected as “having the appearance of a murderer.”

14. 2. As the ruin of success: here success shines as long as failure does not overcome it. And the success does not exist that might endure out of reach of failure. Accordingly:

“He gave with joy a hundred millions
After conquering all the earth,
Till in the end his realm came down
To less than half a gall-nut’s worth.
Yet when his merit was used up,
His body breathing its last breath,
The Sorrowless Asoka too^[5]
Felt sorrow face to face with death.”

15. Furthermore, all health ends in sickness, all youth ends in aging, all life ends in death; all worldly existence is procured by birth, haunted by aging, surprised by sickness, and struck down by death. Hence it is said:

“As though huge mountains made of rock
So vast they reached up to the sky
Were to advance from every side,
Grinding beneath them all that lives,
So age and death roll over all,
Warriors, priests, merchants, and craftsmen,
The outcastes and the scavengers,
Crushing all beings, sparing none.
And here no troops of elephants,
No charioteers, no infantry,
No strategy in form of spells,
No riches, serve to beat them off” (S I 102).

This is how death should be recollected as the “ruin of success” by defining it as death’s final ruining of life’s success.

16. 3. By comparison: by comparing oneself to others. Herein, death should be recollected by comparison in seven ways, that is to say: with those of great fame, with those of great merit, with those of great strength, with those of great supernormal power, with those of great understanding, with Paccekabuddhas, with fully enlightened Buddhas. How? [233]

17. Although Mahāsammata, Mandhātu, Mahāsudassana, Daḷhanemi, Nimi,^[6] etc.,^[7] were greatly famous and had a great following, and though they had amassed enormous wealth, yet death inevitably caught up with them at length, so how shall it not at length overtake me?

Great kings like Mahāsammata,
Whose fame did spread so mightily,
All fell into death’s power too;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way, firstly, by comparison with those of great fame.

18. How by comparison with those of great merit?

Jotika, Jaṭila, Ugga,
And Meṇḍaka, and Puṇṇaka
These, the world said, and others too,
Did live most meritoriously;
Yet they came one and all to death;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with those of great merit.

19. How by comparison with those of great strength?

Vāsudeva, Baladeva,
Bhīmasena, Yuddhiṭṭhila,
And Cāṇura the wrestler,
Were in the Exterminator’s power.
Throughout the world they were renowned
As blessed with strength so mighty;
They too went to the realm of death;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with those of great strength.

20. How by comparison with those of great supernormal power?

The second of the chief disciples,
The foremost in miraculous powers,
Who with the point of his great toe
Did rock Vejayanta’s Palace towers,
Like a deer in a lion’s jaw, he too,
Despite miraculous potency,
Fell in the dreadful jaws of death;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with those of great supernormal power.

21. How by comparison with those of great understanding? [234]

The first of the two chief disciples
Did so excel in wisdom’s art
That, save the Helper of the World,
No being is worth his sixteenth part.
But though so great was Sāriputta’s
Understanding faculty,
He fell into death’s power too;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with those of great understanding.

22. How by comparison with Paccekabuddhas? Even those who by the strength of their own knowledge and energy crushed all the enemy defilements and reached enlightenment for themselves, who [stood alone] like the horn of the rhinoceros (see Sn p. 35f.), who were self-perfected, were still not free from death. So how should I be free from it?

To help them in their search for truth
The Sages various signs employed,
Their knowledge brought them self-perfection,
Their cankers were at length destroyed.

Like the rhinoceros’s horn
They lived alone in constancy,
But death they could no way evade;
What can be said of those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with Paccekabuddhas.

23. How by comparison with fully enlightened Buddhas? Even the Blessed One, whose material body was embellished with the eighty lesser details and adorned with the thirty-two marks of a great man (see MN 91; DN 30), whose Dhamma body brought to perfection the treasured qualities of the aggregates of virtue, etc.,^[8] made pure in every aspect, who overpassed greatness of fame, greatness of merit, greatness of strength, greatness of supernormal power and greatness of understanding, who had no equal, who was the equal of those without equal, without double, accomplished and fully enlightened—even he was suddenly quenched by the downpour of death’s rain, as a great mass of fire is quenched by the downpour of a rain of water.

And so the Greatest Sage possessed
Such mighty power in every way,
And it was not through fear or guilt
That over him Death held his sway.

No being, not even one without
Guilt or pusillanimity,
But will be smitten down; so how
I Will he not conquer those like me?

It should be recollected in this way by comparison with fully enlightened Buddhas.

24. When he does his recollecting in this way by comparing himself with others possessed of such great fame, etc., in the light of the universality of death, thinking, “Death will come to me even as it did to those distinguished beings,” then his meditation subject reaches access. This is how death should be recollected by comparison. [235]

25. 4. As to the sharing of the body with many: this body is shared by many. Firstly, it is shared by the eighty families of worms. There too, creatures live in dependence on the outer skin, feeding on the outer skin; creatures live in dependence on the inner skin, feeding on the inner skin; creatures live in dependence on the flesh, feeding on the flesh; creatures live in dependence on the sinews, feeding on the sinews; creatures live in dependence on the bones, feeding on the bones; and creatures live in dependence on the marrow, feeding on the marrow. And there they are born, grow old and die, evacuate, and make water; and the body is their maternity home, their hospital, their charnel-ground, their privy and their urinal. The body can also be brought to death with the upsetting of these worms. And just as it is shared with the eighty families of worms, so too it is shared by the several hundred internal diseases, as well as by such external causes of death as snakes, scorpions, and what not.

26. And just as when a target is set up at a crossroads and then arrows, spears, pikes, stones, etc., come from all directions and fall upon it, so too all kinds of accidents befall the body, and it also comes to death through these accidents befalling it. Hence the Blessed One said: “Here, bhikkhus, when day is departing and night is drawing on,^[9] a bhikkhu considers thus: ‘In many ways I can risk death. A snake may bite me, or a scorpion may sting me, or a centipede may sting me. I might die of that, and that would set me back. Or I might stumble and fall, or the food I have eaten might disagree with me, or my bile might get upset, or my phlegm might get upset [and sever my joints as it were] like knives. I might die of that, and that would set me back’” (A III 306).

That is how death should be recollected as to sharing the body with many.

27. 5. As to the frailty of life: this life is impotent and frail. For the life of beings is bound up with breathing, it is bound up with the postures, it is bound up with cold and heat, it is bound up with the primary elements, and it is bound up with nutriment.

28. Life occurs only when the in-breaths and out-breaths occur evenly. But when the wind in the nostrils that has gone outside does not go in again, or when that which has gone inside does not come out again, then a man is reckoned to be dead.

And it occurs only when the four postures are found occurring evenly. [236] But with the prevailing of anyone of them the life process is interrupted.

And it occurs only when cold and heat are found occurring evenly. But it fails when a man is overcome by excessive cold or heat.

And it occurs only when the four primary elements are found occurring evenly. But with the disturbance of the earth element even a strong man’s life can be terminated if his body becomes rigid, or with the disturbance of one of the elements beginning with water if his body becomes flaccid and petrified with a flux of the bowels, etc., or if he is consumed by a bad fever, or if he suffers a severing of his limb-joint ligatures (cf. XI.102).

And life occurs only in one who gets physical nutriment at the proper time; but if he gets none, he uses his life up.

This is how death should be recollected as to the frailty of life.

29. 6. As signless: as indefinable. The meaning is that it is unpredictable. For in the case of all beings:

The span, the sickness, and the time, and where
The body will be laid, the destiny:
The living world can never know^[10] these things;
There is no sign foretells when they will be.

30. Herein, firstly the span has no sign because there is no definition such as: Just so much must be lived, no more than that. For beings [die in the various stages of the embryo, namely], at the time of the kalala, of the abbuda, of the pesi, of the ghana, at one month gone, two months gone, three months gone, four months gone, five months gone … ten months gone, and on the occasion of coming out of the womb. And after that they die this side or the other of the century.

31. And the sickness has no sign because there is no definition such as: Beings die only of this sickness, not of any other. For beings die of eye disease or of any one among those beginning with ear disease (see A V 110).

32. And the time has no sign because there is no definition such as: One has to die only at this time, not at any other. For beings die in the morning and at any of the other times such as noon.

33. And where the body will be laid down has no sign because there is no definition such as: When people die, they must drop their bodies only here, not anywhere else. For the person of those born inside a village is dropped outside the village, and that of those born outside the village is dropped inside it. Likewise that of those born in water is dropped on land, and that of those born on land in water. And this can be multiplied in many ways. [237]

34. And the destiny has no sign because there is no definition such as: One who dies there must be reborn here. For there are some who die in a divine world and are reborn in the human world, and there are some who die in the human world and are reborn in a divine world, and so on. And in this way the world goes round and round the five kinds of destinies like an ox harnessed to a machine.

This is how death should be recollected as signless.

35. 7. As to the limitedness of the extent: the extent of human life is short now. One who lives long lives a hundred years, more or less. Hence the Blessed One said: “Bhikkhus, this human life span is short. There is a new life to be gone to, there are profitable [deeds] to be done, there is the life of purity to be led. There is no not dying for the born. He who lives long lives a hundred years, more or less …”

“The life of humankind is short;

A wise man holds it in contempt And acts as one whose head is burning; Death will never fail to come” (S I 108).

And he said further: “Bhikkhus, there was once a teacher called Araka …” (A IV 136), all of which sutta should be given in full, adorned as it is with seven similes.

36. And he said further: “Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of death thus, ‘Oh, let me live a night and day that I may attend to the Blessed One’s teaching, surely much could be done by me,’ and when a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of death thus, ‘Oh, let me live a day that I may attend to the Blessed One’s teaching, surely much could be done by me,’ and when a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of death thus, ‘Oh, let me live as long as it takes to chew and swallow four or five mouthfuls that I may attend to the Blessed One’s teaching, surely much could be done by me’—these are called bhikkhus who dwell in negligence and slackly develop mindfulness of death for the destruction of cankers. [238]

37. “And, bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of death thus, ‘Oh, let me live for as long as it takes to chew and swallow a single mouthful that I may attend to the Blessed One’s teaching, surely much could be done by me,’ and when a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of death thus, ‘Oh, let me live as long as it takes to breathe in and breathe out, or as long as it takes to breathe out and breathe in, that I may attend to the Blessed One’s teaching, surely much could be done by me’—these are called bhikkhus who dwell in diligence and keenly develop mindfulness of death for the destruction of cankers” (A III 305–6).

38. So short in fact is the extent of life that it is not certain even for as long as it takes to chew and swallow four or five mouthfuls.

This is how death should be recollected as to the limitedness of the extent.

39. 8. As to the shortness of the moment: in the ultimate sense the life-moment of living beings is extremely short, being only as much as the occurrence of a single conscious moment. Just as a chariot wheel, when it is rolling, rolls [that is, touches the ground] only on one point of [the circumference of] its tire, and, when it is at rest, rests only on one point, so too, the life of living beings lasts only for a single conscious moment. When that consciousness has ceased, the being is said to have ceased, according as it is said: “In a past conscious moment he did live, not he does live, not he will live. In a future conscious moment not he did live, not he does live, he will live. In the present conscious moment not he did live, he does live, not he will live.”

“Life, person, pleasure, pain—just these alone
Join in one conscious moment that flicks by.
Ceased aggregates of those dead or alive
Are all alike, gone never to return.

No [world is] born if [consciousness is] not
Produced; when that is present, then it lives;
When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead:
The highest sense this concept will allow”^[11] (Nidd I 42).

This is how death should be recollected as to the shortness of the moment.

[Conclusion]

40. So while he does his recollecting by means of one or other of these eight ways, his consciousness acquires [the support of] repetition owing to the reiterated attention, mindfulness settles down with death as its object, the hindrances are suppressed, and the jhāna factors make their appearance. But since the object is stated with individual essences,^[12] and since it awakens a sense of urgency, the jhāna does not reach absorption and is only access. [239] Now, with special development, the supramundane jhāna and the second and the fourth immaterial jhānas reach absorption even with respect to states with individual essences. For the supramundane reaches absorption by means of progressive development of the purification and the immaterial jhānas do so by means of development consisting in the surmounting of the object (see Ch. X) since there [in those two immaterial jhānas] there is merely the surmounting of the object of jhāna that had already reached absorption. But here [in mundane mindfulness of death] there is neither so the jhāna only reaches access. And that access is known as “mindfulness of death” too since it arises through its means.

41. A bhikkhu devoted to mindfulness of death is constantly diligent. He acquires perception of disenchantment with all kinds of becoming (existence). He conquers attachment to life. He condemns evil. He avoids much storing. He has no stain of avarice about requisites. Perception of impermanence grows in him, following upon which there appear the perceptions of pain and not-self. But while beings who have not developed [mindfulness of] death fall victims to fear, horror and confusion at the time of death as though suddenly seized by wild beasts, spirits, snakes, robbers, or murderers, he dies undeluded and fearless without falling into any such state. And if he does not attain the deathless here and now, he is at least headed for a happy destiny on the breakup of the body.

Now, when a man is truly wise,
His constant task will surely be
This recollection about death
Blessed with such mighty potency.

This is the section dealing with the recollection of death in the detailed explanation.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Amplifications are from Vism-mhṭ, p. 236.

[2]:

“The word ‘etc.’ includes Nanda-yakkha, Nanda-māṇava, and others” (Vism-mhṭ 236). See A-a II 104, and M-a IV 8.

[3]:

For the expression upāya-manasikāra—“attention as a [right] means” see M-a I 64.

[4]:

This line is not in the Sutta-nipāta, but see D II 120, note.

[5]:

The Emperor Asoka is referred to. His name Asoka means “Sorrowless.” This story is in the Asokāvadāna and Divyāvadāna, pp. 429–434.

[6]:

The references for the names here and in the following paragraphs are: Mahāsammata (J-a III 454; II 311), Mandhātu (J-a II 311), Mahāsudassana (D II 169f.), Daḷhanemi (D III 59f.), Nimi (J-a VI 96f.), Jotika (Vism XII.41), Jaṭila (XII.41), Ugga (A-a I 394), Meṇḍaka (XII.41f.), Puṇṇaka (XII.42), Vāsudeva (J-a IV 81f.), Baladeva (J-a IV 81f.), Bhīmasena (J-a V 426), Yuddhiṭṭhila (J-a V 426), Cāṇura (J-a IV 81).

[7]:

Pabhuti—“etc.”: this meaning is not in PED; see §121.

[8]:

Virtue, concentration, understanding, deliverance, knowledge, and vision of deliverance.

[9]:

Paṭihitāya—“drawing on”: not in PED; Vism-mhṭ (p. 240) reads paṇitāya and explains by paccāgatāya (come back).

[10]:

Nāyare—“can know”: form not in PED; Vism-mhṭ explains by ñāyanti.

[11]:

“‘Person’ (atta-bhāva) is the states other than the already-mentioned life, feeling and consciousness. The words ‘just these alone’ mean that it is unmixed with self (attā) or permanence” (Vism-mhṭ 242). Atta-bhāva as used in the Suttas and in this work is more or less a synonym for sakkāya in the sense of person (body and mind) or personality, or individual form. See Piṭaka refs. in PED and e.g. this chapter §35 and XI.54.

“‘When consciousness dissolves, the world is dead”: just as in the case of the deathconsciousness, this world is also called ‘dead’ in the highest (ultimate) sense with the arrival of any consciousness whatever at its dissolution, since its cessation has no rebirth-linking (is ‘cessation never to return’). Nevertheless, though this is so, ‘the highest sense this concept will allow (paññatti paramatthiyā)’—the ultimate sense will allow this concept of continuity, which is what the expression of common usage ‘Tissa lives, Phussa lives’ refers to, and which is based on consciousnesses [momentarily] existing along with a physical support; this belongs to the ultimate sense here, since, as they say, ‘It is not the name and surname that lives.’” (Vism-mhṭ 242, 801)

Something may be said about the word paññatti here.

[see note regarding paññatti]

All this shows that the word paññatti carries the meanings of either appellation or concept or both together, and that no English word quite corresponds.

[12]:

“‘But since the object is stated with individual essences’: the breakup of states with individual essences, their destruction, their fall—[all] that has to do only with states with individual essences. Hence the Blessed One said: ‘Bhikkhus, aging-anddeath is impermanent, formed, dependently arisen’ (S II 26). … If it cannot reach absorption because of [its object being] states with individual essences then what about the supramundane jhānas and certain of the immaterial jhānas? It was to answer this that he said ‘now with special development the supramundane jhāna’ and so on” (Vism-mhṭ 243). Kasiṇa jhāna, for example, has a concept (paññatti) as its object (IV.29) and a concept is a dhamma without individual essence (asabhāva-dhamma).