Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Craving and clinging.
Jason
God EmperorArrakis Moderator
Everyone,
In Buddhism, there are many terms which are unfamiliar to people who first begin to study and practice; for example, many people get confused about the difference between tahna (craving) and upadana (clinging). Initially, they sound as if they are referring to the same thing; nevertheless, they are actually referring to two separate concepts. In addition, people often get confused about the difference between physical pain and the pain of mental anguish. In an effort to give a clear example of the differences between craving and clinging and physical pain and mental anguish, these two ideas can be combined into a single observation in the course of our sitting practice. For this experiment, all one has to do is set about forty-five minutes to an hour aside as they would normally do for their sitting practice, and observe.
When sitting in meditation and our legs begin to hurt, the initial unpleasant feeling of pain gives rise to the craving for the pain to cease—i.e. we desire not be associated with this painful feeling, to make it stop. This physical pain is likened to the first dart in the simile of the arrow given in SN 36.6. If one is mindful enough and watches this process further, one might then notice that if they remain in the same position without automatically moving, the mind will have the tendency to continually come back to that pain and focus on it more and more until the point that one feels as if they can no longer bear it anymore. This link between our awareness and the physical pain is the clinging, which will not let an object go if left to its own devices. This, in turn, produces mental anguish or discomfort, which is likened to the second dart.
The main difference between craving and clinging is that craving is the cause of clinging, whereas clinging is the result of craving. The main difference between physical and mental pain is in how we relate to our experience of physical pain—i.e. our resistance to the painful and passion for the pleasant. I find that this is the easiest way for me to see the differences between craving and clinging and physical pain and mental anguish first hand, and also the easiest way to show others how to see these differences as well. This simple experiment works even better when the meditator can stay with the breath long enough to separate their awareness from the painful feeling so that they can see the space between the two, or in other words, that the physical pain is not the same as the mental anguish or discomfort that usually follows.
Sincerely,
Jason
In Buddhism, there are many terms which are unfamiliar to people who first begin to study and practice; for example, many people get confused about the difference between tahna (craving) and upadana (clinging). Initially, they sound as if they are referring to the same thing; nevertheless, they are actually referring to two separate concepts. In addition, people often get confused about the difference between physical pain and the pain of mental anguish. In an effort to give a clear example of the differences between craving and clinging and physical pain and mental anguish, these two ideas can be combined into a single observation in the course of our sitting practice. For this experiment, all one has to do is set about forty-five minutes to an hour aside as they would normally do for their sitting practice, and observe.
When sitting in meditation and our legs begin to hurt, the initial unpleasant feeling of pain gives rise to the craving for the pain to cease—i.e. we desire not be associated with this painful feeling, to make it stop. This physical pain is likened to the first dart in the simile of the arrow given in SN 36.6. If one is mindful enough and watches this process further, one might then notice that if they remain in the same position without automatically moving, the mind will have the tendency to continually come back to that pain and focus on it more and more until the point that one feels as if they can no longer bear it anymore. This link between our awareness and the physical pain is the clinging, which will not let an object go if left to its own devices. This, in turn, produces mental anguish or discomfort, which is likened to the second dart.
The main difference between craving and clinging is that craving is the cause of clinging, whereas clinging is the result of craving. The main difference between physical and mental pain is in how we relate to our experience of physical pain—i.e. our resistance to the painful and passion for the pleasant. I find that this is the easiest way for me to see the differences between craving and clinging and physical pain and mental anguish first hand, and also the easiest way to show others how to see these differences as well. This simple experiment works even better when the meditator can stay with the breath long enough to separate their awareness from the painful feeling so that they can see the space between the two, or in other words, that the physical pain is not the same as the mental anguish or discomfort that usually follows.
Sincerely,
Jason
0
Comments
I find many times that the same answer applies to a similar situation.. it just need to be seen in a slightly different light and the answer likewise.