rga shi - Aging and Death

The link number twelve is cause by birth or becoming, and this is rga shi, aging and death, jaramarana in Sanskrit.

rga is is aging or age, and shi is death.

In the Wheel of Life this is the image of the old man, or a corpse.

Aging is of two types, immediately when someone is born, they start aging -- can't avoid that. The other type is deterioration, which leads to death.

This last cause is of course the easiest to realize, but the important part is to see the causes leading to this, all the way to the root issue, ignorance.

Another thing good to note is that there are many, many chains of these twelve links constantly created, in progress, or about to be finished. There's still hope to stop this samsaric wheel, which leads to the next big topic in the outline -- yest we are back to the four noble truths again.

Anyway, this has so far been a classical presentation of the second noble truth, the truth behind suffering, and how it all happens. Onwards!