Upādāna उपादान is a Sanskrit and Pali word that means "fuel, material cause, substrate that is the source and means for keeping an active process energized".[1][2] It is also an important Buddhist concept referring to "attachment, clinging, grasping".[3] It is considered to be the result oftaṇhā (craving), and is part of theduhkha (dissatisfaction, suffering, pain) doctrine inBuddhism.
Upādāna is theSanskrit andPāli word for "clinging", "attachment" or "grasping", although the literal meaning is "fuel".[4] Upādāna andtaṇhā (Skt.tṛṣṇā) are seen as the two primary causes ofdukkha ('suffering', unease, "standing unstable"). Thecessation of clinging isnirvana, the coming to rest of the grasping mind.[5]
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 unease.[7]
TheAbhidhamma[8] and its commentaries[9] provide the following definitions for these four clinging types:
sense-pleasure clinging:repeatedcraving of worldly things.
view clinging: such as eternalism (e.g., "The world and self are eternal") or nihilism.[10]
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."[11]
self-doctrine clinging: self-identification with self-less entities (e.g., illustrated byMN 44,[12] and further discussed in theskandha andanatta articles).
According toBuddhaghosa,[13] the above ordering of the four types of clinging is in terms of decreasinggrossness, that is, from the most obvious (grossest) type of clinging (sense-pleasure clinging) to the subtlest (self-doctrine clinging).
Buddhaghosa further identifies that these four clinging types are causally interconnected as follows:[14]
self-doctrine clinging: first, one assumes that one has a permanent "self."
wrong-view clinging: then, one assumes that one is either somehow eternal or to be annihilated after this life.
resultant behavioral manifestations:
rites-and-rituals clinging: if one assumes that one is eternal, then one clings to rituals to achieve self-purification.
sense-pleasure clinging: if one assumes that one will completely disappear after this life, then one disregards the next world and clings to sense desires.
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).
In terms of consciously knowable mental experiences, theAbhidhamma 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).[15] Thus, experientially, clinging can be known through the Abhidhamma's fourfold definitions of these mental factors as indicated in the following table:[16]
characteristic
function
manifestation
proximate cause
greed (lobha)
grasping an object
sticks, like hot-pan meat
not giving up
enjoying things of bondage
wrong view (ditthi)
unwise interpreting
presumes
wrong belief
not hearing the Dhamma
To distinguish craving from clinging, Buddhaghosa uses the following metaphor:[17]
"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.... [T]hey 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.
In theFour Noble Truths, the First Noble Truth identifies clinging (upādāna, in terms of "theaggregates of clinging") as one of the core experiences of suffering. The Second Noble Truth identifies craving (tanha, lit. thirst) as the basis for being at unease. In this manner a causal relationship between craving and clinging is found in the Buddha's most fundamental teaching.[18]
In the twelve-linked chain of Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda,also seeTwelve Nidanas), clinging (upādāna) is the ninth causal link:[19]
Upādāna (Clinging, fueling) is dependent onTaṇhā (Craving, thirst) as a condition before it can exist.
"WithCraving, thirst as condition, Clinging, fueling arises".
Upādāna (Clinging, fueling) is also the prevailing condition for the next condition in the chain, Becoming, growing (Bhava).
ProfessorRichard F. Gombrich has pointed out in several publications, and in his Numata Visiting Professor Lectures[when?] at theUniversity of London,School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), that the literal meaning ofupādāna is "fuel". He uses this to link the term to the Buddha's use of fire as a metaphor. In the so-calledFire Sermon (Āditta-pariyāya) (Vin I, 34-5;SN 35.28) the Buddha tells the bhikkhus that everything is on fire. By everything he tells them he means thefive senses plus the mind, their objects, and the operations and feelings they give rise to — i.e. everything means the totality of experience. All these are burning with the fires of greed, hatred and delusion.
In the nidana chain, then, craving createsfuel for continued burning or becoming (bhava). The mind like fire, seeks out more fuel to sustain it, in the case of the mind this issense experience, hence the emphasis the Buddha places on "guarding the gates of the senses". By not being caught up in the senses (appamāda) we can be liberated from greed, hatred and delusion. This liberation is also expressed using the fire metaphor when it is termednibbāna (Sanskrit:Nirvāṇa) which means to "go out", or literally to "blow out the flames of defilement". (Regarding the wordNirvāṇa, the verbvā is intransitive so no agent is required.)
Probably by the time the canon was written down (1st Century BCE), and certainly when Buddhaghosa was writing his commentaries (4th Century CE) the sense of the metaphor appears to have been lost, andupādāna comes to mean simply "clinging" as above. By the time of theMahayana the termfire was dropped altogether and greed, hatred and delusion are known as the "three poisons".
The termUpādāna appears in the sense of "material cause" in ancient Vedic and medieval Hindu texts.[21] For medieval eraVaishnavism scholarRamanuja, the metaphysical Hindu concept ofBrahman (asVishnu) is theupadana-karana (material cause) of the universe.[22] However, other Hindu traditions such as the Advaita Vedanta disagree and assert alternate theories on the nature of metaphysical Brahman and the universe while using the termupadana in the sense of "substrate, fuel".[23][24]
More generally, the realist Hindu philosophies such asSamkhya andNyaya have asserted that Brahman is theUpādāna of the phenomenal world.[25] The philosophies within the Buddhist schools have denied Brahman, assertedimpermanence and that the notion of anything real is untenable from a metaphysical sense.[25] The Hindu traditions such as those influenced by Advaita Vedanta have asserted the position that everything (Atman, Brahman,Prakriti) is ultimately one identical reality.[25] The conceptUpādāna also appears with other sense of meanings, inVedanta philosophies, such as "taking in".[26]
"Bhikkhus, when ignorance is abandoned and true knowledge has arisen in a bhikkhu, then with the fading away of ignorance and the arising of true knowledge he no longer clings to sensual pleasures, no longer clings to views, no longer clings to rules and observances, no longer clings to a doctrine of self. When he does not cling, he is not agitated. When he is not agitated, he personally attains Nibbana. He understands: 'Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'"
"...From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging, illness & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering & stress."
^Examples of references toupādāna in the Sutta Pitaka can be found in the "Culasihanada Sutta" ("Shorter Discourse on the Lion's Roar",MN 11) (see Nanamoli & Bodhi, 2001, p. 161) and the "Nidanasamyutta" ("Connected Discourses on Causation",SN 12) (see Bodhi, 2000b, p. 535).
^In the Abhidhamma, the Dhammasangani §§ 1213-17 (Rhys Davids, 1900, pp. 323-5) contains definitions of the four types of clinging.
^Abhidhamma commentaries related to the four types of clining can be found, for example, in the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (see Bodhi, 2000b, p. 726n. 5) and theVisuddhimagga (Buddhaghosa, 1999, pp. 585-7).
^It is worth noting that, in reference to "wrong view" (Pali:miccha ditthi) as used in various suttas in theAnguttara Nikaya's first chapter, Bodhi (2005), p. 437,n. 10, states that wrong views "deny the foundations of morality, especially those views that reject a principal of moral causation or the efficacy of volitional effort."
^See, for instance, Buddhaghosa (1999), p. 587. For a reference to these particular ascetic practices in theSutta Pitaka, seeMN 57,Kukkuravatika Sutta ("The Dog-Duty Ascetic," translated in: Nanamoli & Khantipalo, 1993; and, Nanamoli & Bodhi, 2001, pp. 493-97).
Bodhi, Bhikku (2000a).A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: The Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Acariya Anuruddha. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions.ISBN1-928706-02-9.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000b).The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.ISBN0-86171-331-1.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2005).In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon.Boston: Wisdom Pubs.ISBN0-86171-491-1.
Buddhaghosa, Bhadantācariya (trans. from Pāli by BhikkhuÑāṇamoli) (1999).The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Seattle, WA: BPS Pariyatti Editions.ISBN1-928706-00-2.
Gombrich, Richard F. (2005).How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. Routledge.ISBN0-415-37123-6.
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu (trans.) & Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.) (2001).The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications.ISBN0-86171-072-X.
Olendzki, Andrew (trans.) (2005).The Healing Medicine of the Dhamma (excerpt) (Miln 5 [verse 335]). Retrieved from "Access to Insight" atThe Healing Medicine of the Dhamma.
Rhys Davids, Caroline A.F. ([1900], 2003).Buddhist Manual of Psychological Ethics, of the Fourth Century B.C., Being a Translation, now made for the First Time, from the Original Pāli, of the First Book of the Abhidhamma-Piṭaka, entitled Dhamma-Saṅgaṇi (Compendium of States or Phenomena). Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.ISBN0-7661-4702-9.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1998b).Upadana Sutta: Clinging (SN 12.52). Retrieved from "Access to Insight" atUpadana Sutta: Clinging.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (trans.) (1999).Ratha-vinita Sutta: Relay Chariots (MN 24). Retrieved from "Access to Insight" atRatha-vinita Sutta: Relay Chariots.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu (2000).Life isn't just Suffering. Retrieved from "Access to Insight" atLife Isn't Just Suffering.
Walshe, Maurice O'Connell (trans.) (1995).The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Somerville: Wisdom Publications.ISBN0-86171-103-3.
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