CRAVING (TANHA)The word "Tanha" in Pali means craving or lust which is also rendered as "desire" · "attachment" "thirst" or "clinging" (Paritassati ti tanha). It is a mental state of insatiability or discontentment. The "Tanha" can be again divided into two different types: the weak desire may be called Tanha and the strong one Kamupadana or grasping of sense pleasures. To cite an instance here, tanhais like a thief who holds his hands out with an intention of stealing something and upadana is like that thief when he firmly grasps it. Besides, the root-cause of pains of the five aggregates which one suffers for one's own desire or search is called "esana tanha" and it is upadana or esita tanha" when worries or attachments are derived from one's watch and ward for one's property. Dependent on feeling, there arises craving which, like ignorance is the other most important factor in the links of the "Dependent Origination' said the Buddha in the Mahanidana Sutta of Digha Nikaya. Craving has the characteristic of being a cause (hetulakkhana) (that is, the cause of suffering): its function is an extreme delight(aghinandanarasa). It is manifested as insatiability (utittibhavapaccuppatthana). Its proximate cause is feeling (vedana padatthana). Classification of Craving Craving is threefold, namely, (1) craving for sensual pleasures (kamatanha), (2) craving for sensual pleasures associated with the view of eternalism (bhavatanha, i.e., enjoying pleasures thinking that they are imperishable, and (3) craving for sensual pleasures with the view of nihilism (vibhavatanha). i.e., enjoying pleasures thinking that every thing perishes after death. The third is the materialistic point of view maintained by some people of the present world. The two terms, the second and the third are usually rendered as craving for existence and non-existence respectively. Moreover, the craving can also be interpreted in three different ways: namely the craving for the Realms of Form (rupatanha), the craving for Formless Realms (arupatanha) and the craving for the cessation of existence with the view of nihilism (nirodhatanha). There are also six kinds of craving corresponding to the six sense objects of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mental object. They become twelve when they are counted as internal and external. They are reckoned as 36 when, viewed as past, present and future. When multiplied by the aforesaid three kinds of craving, they amount to 108 kinds altogether. Man's Insatiable Desire According to Buddhism, man born in the sensuous plane generally delights in sensual pleasures. He is very hard to please and still yearning and longing for more and more of something, newer and newer things through out his life. He passes his time only by leading a voluptuous life. Even when he gets the sensual pleasures that he loves, he can never be satisfied and contented and always remains insatiable as the common proverb implies: 'The more he gets, the more he wants;' or as a Burmese saying goes, The more salty water one drinks, the more one is thirsty'. Besides, man in his fundamental nature seeks for happiness either for his body or mind in some way or other. Being beclouded by ignorance and ensnared with craving he imagines that he is happy when his eyes see beauties, his ears hear sweet music, his nose smells sweet scents, his tongue tastes delicious food, his body touches pleasant tangible things and his mind thinks of pleasing mental objects. Sequence of Craving Man generally imagines that it is enjoyable for him to indulge in sensual pleasures, but that is not real happiness, it is lust, a temporary or momentary feeling in his imagination. He, under an illusion, usually imagines the enjoyment of sensual pleasures as actual happiness and what is unreal as real. In fact, one can never have genuine happiness from enjoying or indulging in sensual pleasures. Instead of obtaining real happiness, craving naturally leads to a sorrowful state and many other evils which bring upon him unprofitable consequences. In Dvayatunupassana Sutta of Sutta Nipata, the Buddha said that "whatever sort of suffering arises, it is conditioned by the factor of craving." The Buddha also said in the Anguttara and Digha Nikaya that the worldlings who are conjoined with attachment of craving have to go through the following process of dependent origination. Dependent on craving there arises search for what is wanted: Dependent on search, there arises gain: Dependent on gain, there arises decision: Dependent on decision, there arises desirous passion: Dependent on desirous passion, there arises grasping or firm hold as one's property; Dependent on grasping, there arises keeping it in safety: Dependent on keeping it in safety, there arises miserliness: Dependent on miserliness, there arises watch and ward (over one's own): Dependent on watch and ward, there arise many wicked and evil consequences, such as, carrying sticks, weapons, quarrelling, contradiction, resort, abuse, slandering, lies and so on. According to the sequence of the above process, one has invariably to encounter manifold sorrows and sufferings as long as one is unable to dispel this very craving. I have explained elsewhere that ignorance is the foremost state which begins the cycle of life and gives rise to many unprofitable and evil actions. Cause of Suffering Here again associated with ignorance is its ally, craving, the other great root-cause of suffering. The origin of the First Noble Truth of Suffering is nothing but this very cause, Craving (tanha) which is the Second Noble Truth. The Buddha taught in Dhammapada: "From craving springs grief, from craving springs fear, for him who is wholly free from craving, there is much less fear." (V.216) This craving is a powerful mental force latent in all, and it is the chief cause of most of the ills of life. It is this craving, gross or subtle, that leads to repeated births in Samsara and makes one cling to all forms of life. It is natural for an ordinary worldling to develop a craving for the pleasures of sense, for to overcome sense-desires is extremely difficult. Ordinarily the enjoyment of sensual pleasures is the highest or the only happiness to an average person. There is no doubt that such a feeling is a momentary happiness in the anticipation, gratification and recollection of fleeting material pleasures, but they are illusory and temporary. According to the Buddha non-attachment or non-passion (viraga) or transcending material pleasures is a greater bliss or happiness. Here the Buddha, the Enlightened One said; "Not getting what one desires is indeed suffering." Yet the man does not understand what his suffering really is and from where it emerges. He is all the time craving for something more and more never stopping his discontentment in enjoying sensual pleasures. Man's mind is thus never contented at ease and in peace but flitting and fleeing from one object to another with more expectations for better pleasurable ways of life. He always falls victim to the domain of sense desires. Thus his mind is most of the time full of attachments, clingings, anxieties, worries, sorrows, etc., since he is almost always hankering after sensual pleasure. The commentator of the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) mentioned in Pali: "Ditthibandanabaddha te, tanhasotena vuyhare, Tanhasotena vuyhanta, no te dukkha vuyhare. "The stream of craving bears them on, Caught in the meshes of their views: And as the stream thus bears them on, They are not free from suffering." Origins of Life Therefore ignorance and craving are indeed the two origins of life-creative forces or roots because of which one cannot rightly see, hear, smell, taste, touch and think of the things as they truly are. Whenever a person sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches, or thinks of anything or anyone based on ignorance and craving, he or she is always defiled with envy, jealousy, pride, greed, hatred and delusion, etc. For this reason, these two root causes are called 'extremes' (anta) because they are in the nature of contrary to tranquillity of mind (samatha) and intuitive insight (vipassana). So in order to expel these two powerful forces it is imperative for us to meditate on each and every thing we see, hear, smell and so on. Remedy for Craving Meditation in the Buddhist sense of the term means to know oneself as one really is. Through meditation on mindfulness or awareness alone can one be enlightened to know for oneself that the so-called he or she is nothing but a component aggregate of non-self, non-ego, nonentity. non—identity or impersonality. The meditation itself accomplishes the Middle Path that avoids the two extremes of self-indulgence in sensual pleasures (kamesu kamisukhallikanuyoga) and self mortification (attakilamathanuyoga). If one goes along the wrong way of these two extremes which makes one low, vulgar, worldly, unworthy, harmful and miserable, one is certainly far away from the Middle Path of the Buddha and in consequence one can never attain Ultimate Happiness of Nibbana. No sooner than the practitioner meditates, for instance, on the awareness or mindfulness of in-and-out breathing, he attains wisdom simultaneously since he has already restrained and controlled all his activities bodily, verbally and mentally: that is, he has fulfilled the perfection in the purification of virtue and mind. Thus the Noble Eightfold Path which consists of the following factors: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Endeavour, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration has been well accomplished. |
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(Index of Contents) |