Exploring the Path - Pāli Course

I can't get no satisfaction I can't get no satisfaction
'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no
…

I can't get no, I can't get no, I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction.

—The Rolling Stones

Dukkhī sukhaṃ patthayati, sukhī bhiyyopi icchati.¹

Someone who suffers yearns for pleasure, and when finding pleasure longs for more.

Surely The Rolling Stones with their catchy tune, at the top of international charts for many years, did not intend to promote or publicize the teaching of the Buddha. Nor can it be implied that they wanted to stir listeners to reflect upon the First Noble Truth?

Nonetheless, their famous and often repeated refrain, considered under various aspects, directly expresses the actual malady of humankind. Some sort of woe always seems to get in the way of complete happiness as humankind does not see any other escape from discontent than searching for satisfaction:

Na hi so, bhikkhave, pajānāti assutavā puthujjano aññatra kāmasukhā dukkhāya vedanāya nissaraṇaṃ, tassa kāmasukhañca abhinandato, yo sukhāya vedanāya rāgānusayo, so anuseti.²

Because here an uninstructed worldling, Bhikkhus, does not know any other recourse from unpleasant sensation than sensual pleasure. Then by the enjoyment of sensual pleasure the dormant tendency towards craving for pleasant sensation gets strengthened.

That is why the Fully Enlightened One, when entreated by Brahma Sahampati to impart the Dhamma to all, was hesitant to follow such a request:³

Fortunately, the darkness is lifted for those who do accept that dukkha is inherit to existence. Likewise based on such recognition, one may now encounter an inner vision to follow a call for peace beyond. In the Samudayasaccaniddeso the Buddha provides a detailed exposition of the second Noble Truth as to how and where suffering arises, thus translated as the ‘origin of suffering’ or the ‘arising of suffering’ (dukkhasamudayaṃ):

Here ponobbhavikā refers to the fact that habitual routine multiplies and produces further becoming. This routine is bound up with craving that hunts for pleasure and delight (nandīrāgasahagatā) here, there and everywhere (tatratatrābhinandinī). That craving occurs whenever any visible, audible, odorous object, or any object of taste, any tangible or mental object enters the perception through any of the sense doors. That is why the Buddha pronounces in the Dukkhasutta:

Any object that enters through any of the sense doors usually becomes cherished or appreciated as ‘enticing and pleasurable’ (piyarūpaṃ sātarūpaṃ). The respective consciousness that arises along with, and based on, the impact on the sense organs (viññāṇaṃ) and the respective subsequent contact (samphasso) produce corresponding sensations (samphassajā vedanā) that are cognized as ‘enticing and pleasurable’.⁶ Perception (saññā) is followed by a mental reaction (sañcetanā) which results in craving (taṇhā) towards an increase of objects that may continue the process of enjoyment. This may lead to mental continuation by taking up in thought any object (vitakko) and even taking it further by pondering it over and over again (vicāro). In this way the process is described as ‘craving that occurs again and again’ which is ‘bound up with pleasure and lust’ and ‘finds delight now here, now there’ (taṇhā ponobbhavikā nandīrāgasahagatā tatratatrābhinandinī).

Kāmataṇhā is translated as ‘craving for sensual pleasures’. When any object of form or matter enters the focus of the eye (or any other corresponding object impacts the other five sense doors) it may be accompanied by enjoyment or pleasure and is thus called ‘craving for sensual pleasures’.

Bhavataṇhā gets translated as ‘craving for repeated rebirth’. Here the same process of any object that enters through the sense doors is accompanied by the ‘eternity view’ which assumes that same object to be lasting and eternal. It is called ‘craving for repeated rebirth’ or ‘craving for becoming’ because the greed is linked with the ‘eternity view’.

Yadā tadevārammaṇaṃ ‘dhuvaṃ¹¹ sassata’nti¹² pavattāya¹³ sassatadiṭṭhiyā saddhiṃ pavattati, tadā bhavataṇhā nāma hoti.

Vibhavataṇhā gets translated as ‘craving for annihilation’. When any object enters the sense organs and one surmises that same object to break up and to get demolished then this impact is accompanied with the ‘annihilation view’. It is the greed accompanying the ‘annihilation view’ that is called ‘craving for annihilation’ or ‘craving for non-becoming’:

Yadā pana tadevārammaṇaṃ ‘ucchijjati¹⁴ vinassatī’ti¹⁵ pavattāya ucchedadiṭṭhiyā saddhiṃ pavattati, tadā vibhavataṇhā nāma hoti.

The Bhagavā at the end of the seven days, dwelling at the foot of the Bodhi Tree in the happiness of liberation (vimuttisukhapaṭisaṃvedī) and having fully comprehended dependent arising,¹⁶ summarized his realization with these few words.

Thus, he understood that there was a way out of it, which will be described in the next lesson titled the ‘Exposition of the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering’ (Nirodhasaccaniddeso).¹⁷