Dependent Origination (ix): Clinging

[Full title: B. Exposition of Dependent Origination (III): Detailed Exposition (ix): Clinging]

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, rules-and-vows 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, n. 24), thus it is sense-desire clinging. Also, it is sense-desire and it is clinging, thus it is sense-desire clinging. Clinging (upādāna) is firm grasping; for here the prefix upa has the sense of firmness, as in upāyāsa (great misery—see §48) and upakuṭṭha (great pox),^[1] 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 rules-andvows clinging; also, it is rite and ritual and it is clinging, thus it is rules-andvows clinging; for ox asceticism, ox vows, etc. (see M I 387f.), are themselves kinds of clinging, too, because of the misinterpretation (insistence) that purification comes about in this way. Likewise, 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 sensedesire 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 clinging” (Dhs §1214). “Firmness of craving” is a name for the subsequent craving itself, which has become firm by the influence of previous craving, 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 declare this world and the other world: such view as this … such perverse assumption is called [false-]view clinging” (Vibh 375; Dhs §1215). Rules-and-vows clinging is the adherence [to the view that] purification comes through rules and vows, according as it is said: “Herein, what is rulesand-vows 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 rules-and-vows clinging” (Dhs §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 assumption 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 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 preceded by the assumption of a self. After that, when a man assumes that this self is eternal, rules-and-vows 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 rules-and-vows 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 because 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.^[2] And that is then divided in two as rules-and-vows clinging and self-doctrine clinging. And of these two, rules-and-vows 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-disappearance, 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 condition, clinging.” [571]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Upakuṭṭha—“great pox” or “great leprosy”: not in PED; see kuṭṭha.

[2]:

Ee has “sassatan ti”; Ae has “sā’ssa diṭṭhī ti”; Vibh-a (Be), “na sassatadiṭṭhī ti.”