''Upādāna'' is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "fuel, material cause, substrate that is the source and means for keeping an active process energized".
It is also an important Buddhist concept referring to "attachment, clinging, grasping". It is considered to be the result of ''
taṇhā
(Pāli; Sanskrit: tṛ́ṣṇā तृष्णा IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer ...
'' (craving), and is part of the ''
dukkha'' (dissatisfaction, suffering, pain) doctrine in
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
.
Buddhism
Upādāna is the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...
and
Pāli word for "clinging", "attachment" or "grasping", although the literal meaning is "fuel". Upādāna and
taṇhā
(Pāli; Sanskrit: tṛ́ṣṇā तृष्णा IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer ...
(Skt. ''tṛṣṇā'') are seen as the two primary causes of
suffering
Suffering, or pain in a broad sense, may be an experience of unpleasantness or aversion, possibly associated with the perception of harm or threat of harm in an individual. Suffering is the basic element that makes up the negative valence of a ...
. The
cessation of clinging leads to
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colomb ...
.
Types of clinging
In the
Sutta Pitaka,
the Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
states that there are four types of clinging:
*sense-pleasure clinging (''kamupadana'')
*all views clinging (''ditthupadana'')
*rites-and-rituals clinging (''silabbatupadana'')
*self-doctrine clinging (''attavadupadana'').
The Buddha once stated that, while other sects might provide an appropriate analysis of the first three types of clinging, he alone fully elucidated clinging to the "self" and its resultant suffering.
The
Abhidhamma and its commentaries provide the following definitions for these four clinging types:
#sense-pleasure clinging: ''repeated''
craving of worldly things.
#view clinging: such as eternalism (e.g., "The world and self are eternal") or nihilism.
#rites-and-rituals clinging: believing that rites alone could directly lead to liberation, typified in the texts by the rites and rituals of "ox practice" and "dog practice."
#self-doctrine clinging: self-identification with self-less entities (e.g., illustrated by
MN 44, and further discussed in the
skandha
(Sanskrit) or ( Pāḷi) means "heaps, aggregates, collections, groupings". In Buddhism, it refers to the five aggregates of clinging (), the five material and mental factors that take part in the rise of craving and clinging. They are als ...
and
anatta articles).
According to
Buddhaghosa
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher. He worked in the Great Monastery (''Mahāvihāra'') at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajjavāda school and in ...
, the above ordering of the four types of clinging is in terms of decreasing ''grossness'', that is, from the most obvious (grossest) type of clinging (sense-pleasure clinging) to the subtlest (self-doctrine clinging).
Interdependence of clinging types
Buddhaghosa further identifies that these four clinging types are causally interconnected as follows:
This hierarchy of clinging types is represented diagrammatically to the right.
Thus, based on Buddhaghosa's analysis, clinging is more fundamentally an erroneous core belief (self-doctrine clinging) than a habitualized affective experience (sense-pleasure clinging).
Manifestations of clinging
In terms of consciously knowable mental experiences, the
Abhidhamma identifies sense-pleasure clinging with the mental factor of "greed" (''lobha'') and the other three types of clinging (self-doctrine, wrong-view and rites-and-rituals clinging) with the mental factor of "wrong view" (''ditthi''). Thus, experientially, clinging can be known through the Abhidhamma's fourfold definitions of these mental factors as indicated in the following table:
To distinguish craving from clinging, Buddhaghosa uses the following metaphor:
:"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....
ey are the roots of the suffering due to seeking and guarding."
Thus, for instance, when the Buddha talks about the "
aggregates of clinging," he is referring to our grasping and guarding physical, mental and conscious experiences that we falsely believe we are or possess.
As part of the causal chain of suffering
In the
Four Noble Truths
In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: ; pi, cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones". ,_the_First_Noble_Truth_identifies_clinging_(''upādāna'',_in_terms_of_"the_Skandha">aggregates_of_clinging")_as_one_of_the_core_experiences_of_suffering.__The_Second_Noble_Truth_identifies_craving_(''
,_the_First_Noble_Truth_identifies_clinging_(''upādāna'',_in_terms_of_"the_Skandha">aggregates_of_clinging")_as_one_of_the_core_experiences_of_suffering.__The_Second_Noble_Truth_identifies_craving_(''Taṇhā">tanha'')_as_the_basis_for_suffering._In_this_manner_a_causal_relationship_between_craving_and_clinging_is_found_in_the_Buddha's_most_fundamental_teaching.
In_the_twelve-linked_chain_of_Dependent_Origination_(Pratitya-samutpada.html" "title="Taṇhā.html" ;"title="Skandha.html" ;"title="Four Noble Truths: BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Encycl ...
, the First Noble Truth identifies clinging (''upādāna'', in terms of "the Skandha">aggregates of clinging") as one of the core experiences of suffering. The Second Noble Truth identifies craving (''Taṇhā">tanha'') as the basis for suffering. In this manner a causal relationship between craving and clinging is found in the Buddha's most fundamental teaching.
In the twelve-linked chain of Dependent Origination (Pratitya-samutpada">Pratītyasamutpāda