Golden Buddha (Nikonaniac/Flickr.com)Taṇhā (Pāli, Sanskrit tṛṣṇā) literally means "thirst." It is a synonym for powerful sensual desire or "craving" juxtaposed with upekkha (peace of mind, equanimity).
The most basic or literal meaning of thirst is not what craving refers to. In Buddhism craving has a technical meaning that is much broader. In the ancient Pali language Canon, sutras explicitly refer to three types of craving:
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- craving for "sensual pleasures"
- craving for "becoming" or "eternal existence"
- craving for "non-existence" or "annihilation"
- craving for "sensual pleasures"
In the Four Noble Truths, the second truth identifies desire/craving as the origin of suffering. This is not because it is the only cause but because it is the cause that can be dealt with directly to bring about the end of suffering (nirvana).
This is elaborated more fully in the twelve links of Dependent Origination. Here craving is the eighth link.
| Ignorance |
| ↓ |
| Formations |
| ↓ |
| Consciousness |
| ↓ |
| Mind & Body |
| ↓ |
| Six Sense Bases |
| ↓ |
| Contact |
| ↓ |
| Feeling |
| ↓ |
| Craving |
| ↓ |
| Clinging |
| ↓ |
| Becoming |
| ↓ |
| Birth |
| ↓ |
| Old Age & Death |
Buddhist teachings describe craving for sense objects associated with pleasant feeling. Sensory pleasure is so powerful that it keeps us in worlds where there is tremendous suffering. Beings are willing to endure pain in search of pleasure. We go from life to life seeking fulfillment here and there. But this fulfillment does not come -- and so we are trapped in this "continued wandering on" (samsara) from life to life, from death to more death.
Wishing to have what we do not have is craving. It also encompasses our negative-wishes, what we wish not to have. We, of course, crave for pleasant feelings. Less obviously, we are obsessed with avoiding unpleasant feelings of all kinds.
The origin of craving (unwholesome desire that brings about so much suffering) extends beyond desires in this material world. There are many sensual "heavens" (celestial worlds in space) and superlative fine-material and immaterial worlds beyond that.
All desire instantaneously produces stress. But some desires lead to the end of suffering. The wholesome "desire" to practice, study, or attain may be discomfiting but will lead to success if put into action.
Therefore, foolish arguments about desire being impossible to break free of utterly miss the point. If one had only the desire to see nirvana, to concentrate (attain absorption), to lead a life of caring and skillful karma, this would be to one's benefit for a long time!
The goal is not to get rid of ALL forms of motivation (chanda), zest, intention, or ambition instantaneously.
One abandons and avoids unskillful desires that lead to harm and ruin. One instead develops and sustains skillful motivations that lead to benefit and success. This is "right effort."
Since abandoning desire does not make sense to how we have lived, we often do not even aim to reduce desire as it roasts us alive. We instead sing its praises and speak of how important it is, confounding wholesome and unwholesome forms of wanting things.
On the one hand, one desires (wishes and hopes) for the end of suffering -- this is beneficial and to be developed. On the other hand, one desires (craves and lusts) for more objects of sensual pleasure and indulgence -- this keeps one cycling in misery and should be let go of if one wishes to be free of all suffering.
The enlightened experience great pleasure, far greater pleasure than the unenlightened. But they do not cling to it and are thereby -- having been released by serenity-and-insight -- are freed. They are doubly successful, winning in two ways, here and hereafter.
Craving includes the desire for life, death (the wish to commit suicide), fame, infamy, sleep/rest, mental or emotional states (e.g., happiness, joy, rapture, love), and enlightenment. One may crave enlightenment, and that would generally be a good thing. Technically and experientially, it would not be a good thing; it would be distressing.
Longing, yearning, pining, lusting for wholesome states frustrates their attainment: The very wish for release gets in the way. Instead, the Middle Path calls for balance. Effort alone is straining. Serenity is in danger of falling into sloth, torpor, sleepiness, apathy.
One therefore balances effort and ease, energy and calm, strength and receptivity. Relaxation is impossible for some, easy for others. Enthusiasm is impossible for some, easy for others. BOTH are needed in balance. In fact, the Buddha pointed out five factors that need to be balanced for enlightenment:
- effort (energy)
- concentration (absorption)
- confidence (faith)
- wisdom (insight)
- mindfulness (bare attention).
Craving springs from the notion that if one's desires are met this will, in and of itself, lead to one's happiness. Such beliefs result in further craving, the repeated enactment of activities to bring about the feeling or result we desire. Things soon falls apart. We are led on to suffering like prey to slaughter.This is graphically depicted in the Wheel of Samsara (bhavacakra), the repeated cycling through states driven by craving and clinging, sustained by ignorance, and reinforced by aversion.
The desire for conditioned things (nirvana being the unconditioned) has never been and can never be satisfied: What is of a nature to arise is of a nature to fall apart, cycles of origination and dissolution, rise and fall. It is their intrinsic nature (impersonal, impermanent, and distressing).
Were it otherwise, the Buddha would have said so. What he said was that this is the nature of conditioned things, things that do not have independent existence (but rather are dependently originated, but can only arise based on causes and conditions. What things? Us. Who is us, who am I, what is my soul or self? The Five Aggregates of Clinging, a fancy name for what we regard as our deepest selves, our identity, our very existence:
- form (body)
- feelings
- perceptions
- formations
- consciousness
The Buddha's solution to the problem of craving is the third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering.
The complete end of suffering comes from the quenching and destruction of craving. Insight -- the truth, seeing things as they really are -- is the destruction of craving. The illusion and our suffering in it continues because we do not see, will not look at the truth for fear that we will lose all that we desire.
We crave unsatisfactory things incapable of pleasing, appeasing, and fulfilling us. We crave sensual pleasure, existence, and [when things do not go our way] annihilation.
With right effort, when we want what actually yields satisfaction, desire is not a hindrance to enlightenment but the vehicle to its realization.
Passion, Aversion, and Craving
Craving (Taṇhā) is personified as one of Death's three "daughters" (dhītā). With Aversion (Arati) and passion (Rāga). For instance, in the Māra-Saṃyutta (SN), the Buddha's victory over death is symbolically complete after Death's daughters fail to entice him:
- They had come to him glittering with beauty --
- Taṇhā, Arati, and Rāga --
- But the Teacher swept them away right there
- As the wind [does] a fallen cotton tuft.
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