Taṇhā

feminine (lit.) drought, thirst; (fig.) craving, hunger for, excitement the fever of unsatisfied longing (c. loc.: kabaḷinkāre āhāre “thirst” for solid food SN.ii.101 sq.; cīvare piṇḍapāte taṇhā = greed for Snp.339). Opp^d to peace of mind (upekhā, santi)

1. Literal meaning: khudāya taṇhāya ca khajjamānā tormented by hunger & thirst Pv.ii.1#5 (= pipāsāya Pv-a.69)
2. In its secondary meaning: taṇhā is a state of mind that leads to rebirth. Plato puts a similar idea into the mouth of Socrates (Phaedo 458, 9). Neither the Greek nor the Indian thinker has thought it necessary to explain how this effect is produced. In the Chain of Causation (DN.ii.34) we are told how Taṇhā arises-when the sense organs come into contact with the outside world there follow sensation and feeling, & these (if, as elsewhere stated, there is no mastery over them) result in Taṇhā In the First Proclamation (SN.v.420 ff.; Vin.i.10) it is said that Taṇhā, the source of sorrow, must be rooted out by the way there laid down, that is by the Aryan Path. Only then can the ideal life be lived. Just as physical thirst arises of itself, and must be assuaged got rid of, or the body dies; so the mental “thirst, arising from without, becomes a craving that must be rooted out, quite got rid of, or there can be no Nibbāna The figure is a strong one, and the word Taṇhā is found mainly in poetry, or in prose passages charged with religious emotion. It is rarely used in the philosophy or the psychology. Thus in the long Enumeration of Qualities (Dhs), Taṇhā occurs in one only out of the 1,366 sections (Dhs.1059), & then only as one of many subordinate phases of lobha. Taṇhā binds a man to the chain of Saṃsāra, of being reborn & dying again again (2^b) until Arahantship or Nibbāna is attained taṇhā destroyed, & the cause alike of sorrow and of future births removed (2^c). In this sense Nibbāna is identical with “sabbupadhi-paṭinissaggo taṇhakkhayo virāgo nirodho” (see Nibbāna).
   1. Systematizations: The 3 aims of t. kāma˚, bhava˚, vibhava˚, that is craving for sensuous pleasure, for rebirth (anywhere but especially in heaven), or for no rebirth; cp. Vibhava These three aims are mentioned already in the First Proclamation (SN.v.420; Vin.i.10) and often afterwards DN.ii.61, DN.ii.308; DN.iii.216, DN.iii.275; SN.iii.26, SN.iii.158; Iti.50; Pts.i.26 Pts.i.39; Pts.ii.147; Vb.101, Vb.365; Ne.160. Another group of 3 aims of taṇhā is given as kāma˚, rūpa˚ & arūpa at DN.iii.216; Vb.395; & yet another as rūpa˚, arūpa & nirodha˚ at DN.iii.216
      ■ The source of t. is said to be sixfold as founded on & relating to the 6 bāhirāni āyatanāni (see rūpa), objects of sense or sensations viz. sights, sounds, smells, etc.: DN.ii.58; Pts.i.6 sq. Cnd.271#i; in threefold aspects (as kāma-taṇhā, bhava & vibhava˚) with relation to the 6 senses discussed at Vism.567 sq.; also under the term cha-taṇha-kāyā (sixfold group, see compounds)