Tanha · Pāli: taṇhā; Skt: tṛṣṇā

In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11), the Buddha defines the origin of suffering as “the craving that makes for further becoming”, accompanied by passion and delight, “relishing now here & now there”, and he distinguishes three kinds: “craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming” (trans. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu). Piyadassi Thera translates the same word as “craving (thirst)” in the same discourse, giving the familiar English image: a wanting that drinks and is not satisfied.

Taṇhā also has an exact position in the chain of conditions, which is what makes it workable. In the Paṭicca-samuppāda-vibhaṅga Sutta (SN 12.2) the Buddha sorts it into six classes: “craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas”, and places it between feeling and clinging: “From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance.” Craving is therefore not a vague moral failing but a link that grows out of ordinary pleasant and unpleasant feeling, and one that can be watched (see dependent origination).

The first discourse states the remedy in the same breath as the diagnosis. The cessation of suffering is “the remainderless fading & cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, & letting go of that very craving”. Naming the thirst and naming what there is to let go of are, in that discourse, a single move: the cause is stated so that the path has somewhere precise to act.