THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[(viii) CRAVING / TANHA]
233. As regards the clause 'With feeling as condition, craving':
Six cravings, for things visible
And all the rest, are treated here;
And each of these, when it occurs,
Can in one of three modes appear.
234. Six kinds of craving are shown in the analysis of this clause [in the
Vibhahga] as 'visible-data craving, sound, odour, flavour, tangible-data,
and mental-data craving' (Vbh.136), called after their objects, as a son is
called after his father 'banker's son', 'brahman's son'. Each of these six
kinds of craving is reckoned threefold according to its mode of occur-
rence as craving for sense desires, craving for becoming, or craving for
non-becoming.
235. When visible-data craving occurs enjoying with sense-desire enjoy-
ment a visible datum as object that has come into the focus of the eye, it
is called craving for sense desires. But when [that same visible-data
craving] occurs along with the eternity view that assumes that same ob-
ject to be lasting and eternal, [568] it is called craving for becoming; for
it is the greed accompanying the eternity view that is called craving for
becoming. When it occurs along with the annihilation view that assumes
that same object to break up and be destroyed, it is called craving for
non-becoming; for it is the greed accompanying the annihilation view
that is called craving for non-becoming. So also in the case of craving
for sounds, and so on.
These amount to eighteen kinds of craving. The eighteen with re-
spect to one's own visible data (one's own appearance), etc., and eight-
een with respect to external [visible data (another's appearance), etc.,]
together make thirty-six kinds. Thirty-six in the past, thirty-six in the
future, and thirty-six in the present, make one-hundred-and-eight kinds
of craving. When these are reduced again, they should be understood to
amount to the six kinds only with visible data, etc., as object; and these,
to three only, as craving for sense desires, and so on.
236. Out of selfish affection for feeling after taking pleasure in it when it
arises through a visible datum as object, etc., these beings accord much
honour to painters, musicians, perfumers, cooks, weavers, distillers of
elixirs,
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physicians, etc., who furnish respectively visible data as object,
etc., just as out of affection for a child they reward the child's nurse after
taking pleasure in the child. That is why it should be understood that
these three kinds of craving have feeling as their condition.
237. What is intended here is but
Resultant pleasant feeling; hence
'Tis a condition in one way
For all this craving's occurrence.
In one way: it is a condition as decisive-support condition only.
238. Or alternatively:
A man in pain for pleasure longs,
And finding pleasure, longs for more;
The peace of equanimity
Is counted pleasure too; therefore
The Greatest Sage announced the law
'With feeling as condition, craving',
Since all three feelings thus can be
Conditions for all kinds of craving.
Though feeling is condition, still
Without inherent tendency
No craving can arise, and so
From this the perfect saint is free.
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This is the detailed explanation of the clause 'With feeling as condi-
tion, craving'.
[(ix) CLINGING / UPADANA]
239. As regards the clause 'With craving as condition, clinging':
Four clingings need to be explained
(1) As to analysis of meaning,
(2) As to the brief and full account
Of states, (3) and also as to order. [569]
240. Herein, this is the explanation: firstly, there are these four kinds of
clinging here, namely, sense-desire clinging, [false-] view clinging, rite-
and-ritual clinging, and self-doctrine clinging.
241. 1. The analysis of meaning is this: it clings to the kind of sense-
desire called sense-desire's physical object (see Ch. IV, note 24), thus it
is sense-desire clinging. Also, it is sense-desire and it is clinging, thus it
is sense-desire clinging. Clinging (upadana) is firm grasping; for here
the prefix upa has the sense of firmness, as in upayasa (great misery—
see §48) and upakuttha (great pox),
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and so on. Likewise, it is [false]
view and it is clinging, thus it is [false-] view clinging; or, it clings to
[false] view, thus it is [false-] view clinging; for in [the case of the false
view] 'The world and self are eternal' (D.i,14), etc., it is the latter kind
of view that clings to the former. Likewise, it clings to rite and ritual,
thus it is rite-and-ritual clinging; also, it is rite and ritual and it is cling-
ing, thus it is rite-and-ritual clinging; for ox asceticism, ox vows, etc.,
(see M.i,387f.) are themselves kinds of clinging, too, because of the mis-
interpretation (insistence) that purification comes about in this way. Like-
wise, they indoctrinate by means of that, thus that is doctrine; they cling
by means of that, thus that is clinging. What do they indoctrinate with?
What do they cling to? Self. The clinging to doctrines of self is self-
doctrine clinging. Or by means of that they cling to a self that is a mere
doctrine of self; thus that is self-doctrine clinging. This, firstly, is the
'analysis of meaning'.
242. 2. But as regards the brief and full account of states, firstly, in
brief sense-desire clinging is called 'firmness of craving' since it is said:
'Herein, what is sense-desire clinging? That which in the case of sense
desires is lust for sense desires, greed for sense desires, delight in sense
desires, craving for sense desires, fever of sense desires, infatuation with
sense desires, committal to sense desires: that is called sense-desire cling-
ing' (Dhs. §1214). 'Firmness of craving' is a name for the subsequent
craving itself, which has become firm by the influence of previous crav-
ing, which acts as its decisive-support condition. But some have said:
Craving is the aspiring to an object that one has not yet reached, like a
thief s stretching out his hand in the dark; clinging is the grasping of an
object that one has reached, like the thief s grasping his objective. These
states oppose fewness of wishes and contentment and so they are the
roots of the suffering due to seeking and guarding (see D.ii,58f.). The
remaining three kinds of clinging are in brief simply [false] view.
243. In detail, however, sense-desire clinging is the firm state of the
craving described above as of one-hundred-and-eight kinds with respect
to visible data and so on. [False-] view clinging is the ten-based wrong
view, according as it is said: 'Herein what is [false-] view clinging?
There is no giving, no offering, ... [no good and virtuous ascetics and
brahmans who have themselves] realized by direct-knowledge and de-
clare this world and the other world: such view as this ... such perverse
assumption is called [false-] view clinging' (Vbh. 375; Dhs. §1215).
Rite-and-ritual clinging is the adherence [to the view that] purification
comes through rites and rituals, according as it is said: 'Herein, what is
rite-and-ritual clinging? ... That purification comes through a rite, that
purification comes through a ritual, [570] that purification comes through
a rite and ritual: such view as this ... such perverse assumption is called
rite-and-ritual clinging' (Dh. §1216). Self-doctrine clinging is the twenty-
based [false] view of individuality* according as it is said: 'Herein, what
is self-doctrine clinging? Here the untaught ordinary man ... untrained in
good men's Dhamma, sees materiality as self... such perverse assump-
tion is called self-doctrine clinging' (Dhs. §1217).
This is the 'brief and full account of states'.
244. 3. As to order: here order is threefold (see Ch. XIV, §211), that is
to say, order of arising, order of abandoning, and order of teaching.
Herein, order of arising of defilements is not meant literally because
there is no first arising of defilements in the beginningless round of
rebirths. But in a relative sense it is this: usually in a single becoming the
misinterpretation of (insistence on) eternity and annihilation are pre-
ceded by the assumption of a self. After that, when a man assumes that
this self is eternal, rite-and-ritual clinging arises in him for the purpose
of purifying the self. And when a man assumes that it breaks up, thus
disregarding the next world, sense-desire clinging arises in him. So self-
doctrine clinging arises first, and after that, [false-] view clinging, and
rite-and-ritual clinging or sense-desire clinging. This, then, is their order
of arising in one becoming.
245. And here [false-] view clinging, etc., are abandoned first because
they are eliminated by the path of stream-entry. Sense-desire clinging is
abandoned later because it is eliminated by the path of Arahantship. This
is the order of their abandoning.
246. Sense-desire clinging, however, is taught first among them because
of the breadth of its objective field and because of its obviousness. For it
has a broad objective field because it is associated with eight kinds of
consciousness ((22)-(29)). The others have a narrow objective field be-
cause they are associated with four kinds of consciousness ((22), (23),
(26) and (27)). And usually it is sense-desire clinging that is obvious
because of this generation's love of attachment (see M.i,167), not so the
other kinds. One possessed of sense-desire clinging is much given to
display and ceremony (see M.i,265) for the purpose of attaining sense
desires. [False-] view clinging comes next to the [sense-desire clinging]
since that [display and ceremony] is a [false-] view of his.
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And that is
then divided in two as rite-and-ritual clinging and self-doctrine clinging.
And of these two, rite-and-ritual clinging is taught first, being gross,
because it can be recognized on seeing [it in the forms of] ox practice
and dog practice. And self-doctrine clinging is taught last because of its
subtlety. This is the 'order of teaching'.
[How Craving is a Condition for Clinging]
247. For the first in a single way;
But for the three remaining kinds
In sevenfold or eightfold way.
248. As regards the four kinds of clinging taught in this way, craving for
sense desires is a condition in one way, as decisive-support, for the first
kind, namely, sense-desire clinging, because it arises in relation to the
objective field in which craving delights. But it is a condition in seven
ways, as conascence, mutuality, support, association, presence, non-dis-
appearance, and root-cause, or in eight ways, as [those and] decisive-
support as well, for the remaining three kinds. And when it is a condition
as decisive-support, then it is never conascent.
This is the detailed explanation of the clause 'With craving as con-
dition, clinging'. [571]
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