Functions of Tadarammana and Cuti - The three terrors that part mother and son

If one is not wise, one grieves, but for those who cultivate the Eightfold Path, there will be less sorrow. For him who has attained the stage of the arahat, there will be cuti-citta, but it will not be succeeded by patisandhi-citta. Then there is an end to birth, old age, sickness and death.
We read in the 'Gradual Sayings' (Book of the Threes, Ch. VII, par. 62, Terror, V and VI) :

Monks, these three terrors part mother and son.

What three?

A mother cannot bear to see her son grow old.

She says, 'I am growing old. Let not my son grow old.

' The son likewise cannot bear to see his mother grow old.

He says, 'I am growing old. Let not my mother grow old.

' And it is the same with regard to getting sick and dying.

These are the three terrors that part mother and son.

 

But, monks, there is a way, there is a practice that leads to the abandoning,

to the overpassing of these three terrors that part mother and son,

a way which joins mother and son.

What is that way, what is that practice which so leads?.

 

It is just this Eightfold Way, to wit :

Right view,..... right concentration,

That is the way, that is the practice…..