Grasping and Clinging
How
can we get away from and become completely independent of things, all of which
are transient, unsatisfactory and devoid of selfhood? The answer is that we have
to find out what is the cause of our desiring those things and clinging to them.
Knowing that cause, we shall be in a position to eliminate clinging completely.
Buddhists recognize four different kinds of clinging or attachment.
1) Sensual attachment (Kamupanana) is clinging to attractive and desirable sense
objects. It is the attachment that we naturally develop for things we like and
find satisfaction in: colors and shapes, sounds, odours, tastes, tactile objects,
or mental images, objects past, present, or future that arise in the mind, and
either correspond to material objects in the world outside or within the body,
or are just imaginings. We instinctively find pleasure, enchantment, delight in
these six kinds of sense objects. They induce delight and enchantment in the mind
perceiving them.
As soon as an individual is born, he comes to know the taste
of these six sense objects, and clings to them; and as time passes he becomes
more and more firmly attached to them. Ordinary people are incapable of withdrawing
from them again, so they present a major problem. It is necessary to have a proper
knowledge and understanding of these sense objects and to act appropriately with
respect to them, otherwise clinging to them may lead to complete and utter dereliction.
If we examine the case history of any person who has sunk into dereliction, we
always find that it has come about through his clinging fast to some desirable
sense object. Actually every single thing a human being does has its origin in
sensuality. Whether we love, become angry, hate, feel envious, murder, or commit
suicide, the ultimate cause must be some sense object. If we investigate what
is it that drives human beings to work energetically, or to do anything at all
for that matter, we find it is desire, desire to get things of one kind or another.
People strive, study, and earn what money they can, and then go off in search
of pleasure - in the form of colors and shapes, sounds, odors, tastes, and tactile
objects - which is what keeps them going. Even merit making in order to go to
heaven has its origins simply in a wish based on sensuality. Taken together, all
the trouble and chaos in the world has its origin in sensuality.
The danger
of sensuality lies in the power of sensual attachment. For this reason the Buddha
reckoned clinging to sensuality as the primary form of attachment. It is a real
world problem. Whether the world is to be completely destroyed, or whatever is
to happen, is bound to depend on this very sensual clinging. It behooves us to
examine ourselves to find out in what ways we are attached to sensuality and how
firmly, and whether it is not perhaps within our power to give it up. Speaking
in worldly terms, attachment to sensuality is a very good thing. It conduces to
family love, to diligence and energy in the search for wealth and fame, and so
on. But if looked at from the spiritual point of view, it is seen to be the secret
en trance for suffering and torment. Spiritually speaking, attachment to sensuality
is something to be kept under control. And if all suffering is to be eliminated,
sensual attachment has to be done away with completely.
2) Attachment
to opinions (Ditthupadana). Clinging to views and opinions is not difficult to
detect and identify once we do a little introspection. Ever since we were born
into the world, we have been receiving instruction and training, which has given
rise to ideas and opinions. In speaking here of opinions, what we have in mind
is the kind of ideas one hangs on to and refuses to let go of. To cling to one's
own ideas and opinions is quite natural and is not normally condemned or disapproved
of. But it is no less grave a danger than attachment to attractive and desirable
objects. It can happen that preconceived ideas and opinions to which we had always
clung obstinately come to be destroyed. For this reason it is necessary that we
continually amend our views, making them progressively more correct, better, higher,
changing false views into views that are closer and closer to the truth, and ultimately
into the kind of views that incorporate the Four Noble Truths.
Obstinate and
stubborn opinions have various origins, but in the main they are bound up with
customs, traditions, ceremonies and religious doctrines. Stubborn personal convictions
are not a matter of great importance. They are far less numerous than convictions
stemming from long held popular traditions and ceremonies. Adherence to views
is based on ignorance. Lacking knowledge, we develop our own personal views on
things, based on our own original stupidity. For instance, we are convinced that
things are desirable and worth clinging to, that they really endure, are worthwhile
and are selves, instead of perceiving that they are just a delusion and a deception,
transient, worthless and devoid of selfhood. Once we have come to have certain
ideas about something, we naturally don't like to admit later on that we were
mistaken. Even though we may occasionally see that we are wrong, we simply refuse
to admit it. Obstinacy of this sort is to be considered a major obstacle to progress,
rendering us incapable of changing for the better, incapable of modifying false
religious convictions and other long-standing beliefs. This is likely to be a
problem for people who hold to naive doctrines. Even though they may later come
to see them as naive, they refuse to change on the grounds that their parents,
grandparents and ancestors all held those same views. Or if they are not really
interested in correcting and improving themselves, they may simply brush away
any arguments against their old ideas with the remark that this is what they have
always believed. For these very reasons, attachment to opinions is to be considered
a dangerous defilement, a major danger, which, if we are to better ourselves at
all, we ought to make all efforts to eliminate.
3) Attachment to rites
and rituals (Silabbatupadana). This refers to clinging to meaningless traditional
practices that have been thoughtlessly handed down, practices which people choose
to regard as sacred and not to be changed under any circumstances. In Thailand
there is no less of this sort of thing than in other places. There are beliefs
involving amulets, magical artifacts and all manner of secret procedures. There
exist, for instance, the beliefs that on rising from sleep one must pronounce
a mystical formula over water and then wash one's face in it, that before relieving
nature one must turn and face this and that point of the compass, and that before
one partakes of food or goes to sleep there have to be other rituals. There are
beliefs in spirits and celestial beings, in sacred trees and all manner of magical
objects. This sort of thing is completely irrational. People just don't think
rationally; they simply cling to the established pattern. They have always done
it that way and they just refuse to change. Many people professing to be Buddhists
cling to these beliefs as well and so have it both ways; and this even includes
some who call themselves bhikkhus, disciples of the Buddha. Religious doctrines
based on belief in God, angels and sacred objects are particularly prone to these
kinds of views; there is no reason why we Buddhists should not be completely free
of this sort of thing.
The reason we have to be free of such views is that
if we practice any aspect of Dhamma unaware of its original purpose, unconscious
of the rationale of it, the result is bound to be the foolish, naive assumption
that it is something magical. Thus we find people taking upon themselves the moral
precepts or practicing Dhamma, purely and simply to conform with the accepted
pattern, the traditional ceremonial, just to follow the example that has been
handed down. They know nothing of the rationale of these things, doing them just
out of force of habit. Such firmly established clinging is hard to correct. This
is what is meant by thoughtless attachment to traditional practices. Insight meditation
or tranquillity meditation as practiced nowadays, if carried out without any knowledge
of rhyme and reason and the real objectives of it, is bound to motivated by grasping
and clinging, misdirected, and just some kind of foolishness. And even the taking
of the Precepts, five, eight, or ten, or however many, if done in the belief that
one will thereby become a magical, supernatural, holy individual possessing psychic
or other powers, becomes just misdirected routine, motivated simply by attachment
to rite and ritual.
It is necessary, then, that we be very cautious. Buddhist
practice must have a sound foundation in thought and understanding and desire
to destroy the defilements. Otherwise it will be just foolishness; it will be
misdirected, irrational a just a waste of time.
4) Attachment to the
idea of selfhood (Attavadupadana). The belief in selfhood is something important
and also something extremely well concealed. Any living creature is always bound
to have the wrong idea of "me and mine." This is the primal instinct
of living things and is the basis of all other instincts. For example, the instinct
to seek food and eat it, the instinct to avoid danger, the instinct to procreate,
and many others consist simply in the creature's instinctive awareness of a belief
in its own selfhood. Convinced first of all of its own selfhood, it will naturally
desire to avoid death, to search for food and nourish its body, to seek safety,
and to propagate the species. A belief in selfhood is, then, universally present
in all living things. If it were not so, they could not continue to survive. At
the same time, however, it is what causes suffering in the search for food and
shelter, in the propagation of the species, or in any activity whatsoever. This
is one reason why the Buddha taught that attachment to the self-idea is the root
cause of all suffering. He summed it up very briefly by saying: "Things,
if clung to, are suffering, or are a source of suffering." This attachment
is the source and basis of life; at the same time it is the source and basis of
suffering in all its forms. It was this very fact that the Buddha was referring
to when he said that life is suffering; suffering is life. This means the body
and mind (five aggregates) which are clung to are suffering. Knowledge of the
source and basis of life and of suffering is to be considered the most profound
and most penetrating knowledge, since it puts us in a position to eliminate suffering
completely. This piece of knowledge can be claimed to be unique to Buddhism. It
is not to be found in any other religion in the world. The most efficacious way
of dealing with attachment is to recognize it whenever it is present. This applies
most particularly to attachment to the idea of selfhood, which is the very basis
of life. It is something that comes into existence of its own accord, establishing
itself in us without our needing to be taught it. It is present as an instinct
in children and the small offspring of animals right from birth. Baby animals
such as kittens know how to assume a defensive attitude, as we can see when we
try to approach them. There is always that something, the "self" present
in the mind, and consequently this attachment is bound to manifest. The only thing
to do is to rein it in as much as possible until such time as one is well advanced
in spiritual knowledge; in other words, to employ Buddhist principles until this
instinct has been overcome and completely eliminated. As long as one is still
an ordinary person, a worldling, this instinct remains unconquered. Only the highest
of the Aryians, the Arahant, has succeeded in defeating it. We must recognize
this as a matter of no small importance; it is a major problem common to all living
creatures. If we are to be real Buddhists, if we are to derive the full benefits
from the teaching, it is up to us to set about overcoming this misconception.
The suffering to which we are subject will diminish accordingly.
To know the
truth about these things, which are of everyday concern to us, is to be regarded
as one of the greatest boons, one of the greatest skills. Do give some thought
to this matter of the four attachments, bearing in mind that nothing whatever
is worth clinging to, that by the nature of things, nothing is worth getting or
being. That we are completely enslaved by things is simply a result of these four
kinds of attachment. It rests with us to examine and become thoroughly familiar
with the highly dangerous and toxic nature of things. Their harmful nature is
not immediately evident as is the case with a blazing fire, weapons, or poison.
They are well disguised as sweet, tasty, fragrant, alluring things, beautiful
things, melodious things. Coming in these forms they are bound to be difficult
to recognize and deal with. Consequently we have to make use of this knowledge
the Buddha has equipped us with. We have to control this unskillful grasping and
subdue it by the power of insight. Doing this, we shall be in a position to organize
our life in such a way that it becomes free of suffering, free of even the smallest
trace of suffering. We shall be capable of working and living peacefully in the
world, of being undefiled, enlightened and tranquil.
Let us sum up. These
four forms of attachment are the only problem that Buddhists or people who wish
to know about Buddhism have to understand. The objective of living a holy life
(Brahmacariya) in Buddhism is to enable the mind to give up unskillful grasping.
You can find this teaching in every discourse in the texts which treats of the
attainment of arahantship. The expression used is "the mind freed from attachment."
That is the ultimate. When the mind is free from attachment, there is nothing
to bind it and make it a slave of the world. There is nothing to keep it spinning
on in the cycle of birth and death, so the whole process comes to a stop, or rather,
becomes world transcending, free from the world. The giving up of unskillful clinging
is, then, the key to Buddhist practice.
Extract from "Handbook for Mankind"
by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa.