Craving and dukkha

by Bhikkhu Anālayo
In what follows I examine an aspect of the standard exposi-
tion of dependent arising, paṭicca samuppāda, namely the
relationship between craving and dukkha. After an initial
assessment of the significance of dukkha in the light of its
standard translation as “suffering,” I turn to the relation-
ship between craving and dukkha from the viewpoint of
dependent arising and set against the background of the
medical scheme of diagnosis underlying the four noble
truths. In the final part of this article, I apply the relation-
ship between craving and dukkha to the case of the over-
eating King Pasenadi.

Dukkha
The term dukkha is regularly translated as “suffering.” This
translation does not do justice to the different dimensions
of this Pāli term (or of its Sanskrit counterpart duḥkha) in
its early Buddhist usage.
One of these dimensions is the experience of pain,
where dukkha stands for one of the three feeling tones, ve-
danā. Yet, the experience of pain does not invariably result
in suffering. The famous simile of the two darts illustrates
this well. According to the Discourse on the Dart, the Salla-
sutta (SN 36.6), the first dart of physical pain need not be
followed by the additional dart of mental suffering. Through
training in mindfulness, it becomes possible to face the
challenge of pain with a balanced mind. In this way, one
learns to avoid reacting to it with craving for the pain to
disappear and then with suffering when this does not hap-
Bhikkhu Anālayo 2019: “Craving and dukkha,” Insight Journal, 45: 35–42.
 Craving and dukkha

pen in accordance with one’s wishes. Hence dukkha as one

of the three feeling tones refers to “pain” or what is “unpleas-
ant,” but this does not invariably result in “suffering.”
Another dimension of the same Pāli term concerns
all conditioned phenomena. Such conditioned phenomena
can without exception be qualified as dukkha. This usage
thereby covers all three feeling tones, as conditioned phe-
nomena can be experienced as pleasant, painful, or neither
of the two.
Now pleasant experiences could hardly be consid-
ered “suffering.” Of course, pleasant experiences eventu-
ally change, but so do painful experiences and in that case
a change can be experienced as positive. Therefore, the fact
of change cannot unequivocally be considered as produc-
tive of suffering.
Pleasant experiences are pleasant, but they fail to
give lasting satisfaction. Hence dukkha, when applied to all
conditioned phenomena and therewith to any feeling tone,
could better be rendered as “unsatisfactory.” Whatever feel-
ing tone we experience, it cannot yield lasting satisfaction,
simply by dint of its changing nature. For this reason, any-
thing that is conditioned (and therefore changing) is indeed
unsatisfactory.
In contrast, “suffering” is not a quality shared by all
conditioned phenomena. Instead, it is only a reaction of an
untrained mind. For this reason, it fails to make sense to use
the term “suffering” as a qualification applied to all condi-
tioned phenomena.
Our ability to understand early Buddhist thought
suffers from the inadequate translation of dukkha as “suffer-
ing.” Although in general it is preferable to translate
Buddhist doctrinal terminology, in this case it might be
better just to use the Pāli term. When translation appears to
be required, “painful” or “unpleasant” could be employed
if the context concerns one of the three feeling tones; “un-
satisfactory” would be the appropriate choice if the term
dukkha applies to all conditioned phenomena. In this way,

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 Craving and dukkha

the import of the early teachings could be more adequately

conveyed and misunderstandings be avoided.

Craving is Not Only a Response to dukkha

The standard formulation of the second noble truth presents
craving as the culprit responsible for the arising of dukkha.
An alternative perspective, however, would be to conceive
of craving as a response to dukkha.1
This alternative perspective can be examined from
the viewpoint of the two types of dukkha, mentioned above.
If dukkha stands for all that is conditioned and hence refers
to experiences that can in principle involve all three feeling
tones, the alternative interpretation would imply either that
craving might arise from conditioned phenomena or that it
certainly arises from them.
The first option would simply imply that any type of
experience might lead to craving. This much is obvious
anyway and would therefore hardly be offering an alterna-
tive perspective. The second option would risk positing
craving as an inevitable part of human experience. This
would be in direct conflict with the third noble truth, which
envisages the complete removal of craving. Such removal
does not require the elimination of the world of conditioned
phenomena. Instead, the Buddha and his arahant disciples
were free from craving while still living in the world.
Hence, at least from an early Buddhist perspective, craving
is not an inevitable part of human experience
The second possibility of taking dukkha to stand for
one of the three feeling tones would reflect the self-evident
fact that the untrained mind will react with craving when
experiencing pain. The Discourse on the Dart, mentioned
above, provides a good example for craving as a reaction to
pain. As this discourse shows, the untrained mind tends to
react to pain not only with craving for the pain to go away,
but also with craving for sensual indulgence in order to be

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 Craving and dukkha

distracted from the painful condition. In this way, craving

can indeed be a reaction to dukkha.
Yet, the arising of craving in dependence on the
experience of pain fails to do full justice to the second noble
truth. The problem is that in this way the potential of pleas-
ant and neutral experiences to trigger craving is no longer
taken into account. Reacting with craving is not limited to
times when something unwanted happens and painful feel-
ing tones are experienced. It can also happen in relation to
pleasant and neutral feeling tones, as long as the tendency
to crave has not been removed from the mind.
Once that has been achieved, however, craving will
no longer arise in relation to any of these three feelings
tones. This is why the traditional teaching emphasizes crav-
ing as the condition for dukkha, as it is with the removal of
craving that freedom from dukkha becomes possible.
Placing this within the broader perspective of the
standard presentation of dependent arising, the first link of
ignorance serves as the root cause of craving. As long as
ignorance holds sway, craving leads on to birth, old age, and
death, which the first noble truth explicitly reckons to be
instances of dukkha. The description of dependent arising
concludes that “in this way this whole mass of dukkha
arises.”2 There can be little doubt that this indeed intends to
show that ignorance leads via craving to dukkha.

Transcendental Dependent Arising

Whereas the standard presentation of dependent arising
presents dukkha as the final outcome, in one early discourse
the same principle is taken further, by going beyond dukkha
(SN 12.23). This passage is therefore of central importance
for ascertaining what arises from dukkha.
The presentation in this discourse, often referred to
as a teaching on “transcendental dependent arising,”3 de-
picts several states that arise from dukkha, none of which

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 Craving and dukkha

correspond to craving. Instead, according to this discourse

dukkha is the proximate cause for “faith” or “confidence,”
saddhā. Based on saddhā, the discourse continues with the
conditional arising of gladness, joy, tranquility, happiness,
concentration, knowledge and vision of things as they really
are, disenchantment, dispassion, liberation, and knowledge
of ending.
The conditioned series described in this way com-
pares to rain that falls on a mountain top, resulting in the
water flowing down in creeks, ponds, rivers, and eventually
reaching the ocean. In the same way, although ignorance
leads via craving to dukkha, from there the series of condi-
tions continues with the above-mentioned states in such a
way as to issue in the arising of liberation rather than the
arising of craving.

The Four Noble Truths

An advantage of the proposal that dukkha is the cause for
craving is of a sequential type, as in this way the first noble
truth states the cause and the second its result. However, the
formulation of the four truths appears to be modeled on an
ancient Indian scheme of medical diagnosis.4 This scheme
proceeds by first diagnosing the disease, followed by iden-
tifying the pathogen responsible for the disease. In the same
vein, the potential of recovering health leads on to identify-
ing the required cure. The resultant correlations are:

disease: dukkha
pathogen: craving
health: cessation of craving
cure: cultivation of the noble eightfold path

Given this medical precedent, it is quite natural that the first

truth mentions the effect and the second its cause (and again

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 Craving and dukkha

the third the effect and the fourth its cause). This is not
something that requires correction by inverting their condi-
tional relationship, so that the cause comes first and the re-
sult only after that. Instead of presenting a flowchart-style
statement of causality, where the cause should come before
the result, the formulation of the four noble truths rather in-
volves the adoption of a medical scheme of diagnosis, where
a recognition of the symptoms should indeed come before
searching for what is responsible for them.
In fact, without proper identification of the disease,
it would hardly be meaningful to set out on a search for
what has caused it. Hence, by keeping in mind the medical
precedent, it becomes understandable why dukkha is men-
tioned first and craving only subsequently.

The Case of King Pasenadi

By way of illustration, the instructions on mindful eating,
given to King Pasenadi, could be consulted.5 As discussed
in a previous contribution to this journal, on seeing the bod-
ily discomfort of the king, the Buddha gave him an instruc-
tion on mindful eating that was successful in countering the
king’s tendency to overeat, resulting in a reduction of his
overweight bodily condition.
When evaluated from the proposal that dukkha leads
to craving, it is obviously not the case that only food that is
dukkha, in the sense of not being palatable, causes craving.
To the contrary, what tends to arouse our craving is the type
of food that we like to eat.
In the case of King Pasenadi, overeating was the
cause for his experience of dukkha in the form of experien-
cing physical discomfort when approaching the Buddha. In
the actual encounter, the Buddha must have first of all noted
Pasenadi’s physical condition. This corresponds to the first
noble truth of dukkha, the diagnosis of the disease. Seeing
that condition would have made it plainly evident to the

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Buddha that the king’s physical dukkha was the result of

craving. This corresponds to the second truth of identifying
craving as what is responsible for dukkha.
The next step then would have been the assessment
that the king could in principle achieve a healthier bodily
condition. Although this falls short of doing full justice to
the complete eradication of craving, envisaged in the third
noble truth, it does exemplify the same principle. The path
to achieve that condition of improved health then was the
practice of mindful eating. This, too, does not do full justice
to the whole noble eightfold path, but in the present context
it still exemplifies the principle standing behind the fourth
noble truth.
In this way, the episode involving King Pasenadi can
be taken as a convenient illustration of a practical applica-
tion of the four truths scheme, showing that these follow
each other logically and do not require a revision of their
sequence. A diagnosis of the king’s physical condition (=
dukkha) as the first and indispensable step forms the foun-
dation for identifying the cause of this condition to be over-
eating (= craving). The potential of a healthier bodily condi-
tion (= freedom from dukkha, at least to some extent) in turn
naturally leads on to the practice (= path) to be undertaken
for achieving that goal, which here in particular involves
the cultivation of mindfulness when eating.

Conclusion
The standard translation of dukkha as “suffering” is mis-
leading. Perhaps the best solution would be to leave the
term untranslated. If a translation is required, “painful” or
“unpleasant” could serve for dukkha as one of the three
feeling tones and “unsatisfactory” for a qualification of all
conditioned phenomena.
The early discourses reckon craving to be the culprit
responsible for dukkha, rather than the other way around.

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 Craving and dukkha

The only instance among these texts that pursues condition-

ality beyond dukkha shows it to lead to faith or confidence,
and eventually to issue in liberation instead of the arising of
craving.
The teaching of the four noble truths reflects a medi-
cal scheme of diagnosis, which proceeds from recognition
of the disease, dukkha, to identifying its cause, craving.
Freedom from dukkha in the form of the cessation of crav-
ing as the supreme health has its corresponding cause in the
cultivation of the noble eightfold path.

1
John Peacock 2018: “Vedanā, Ethics, and Character: A Prolegomena,”
Contemporary Buddhism, 19.1: 160–184; p. 161. His position appears
to be influenced by Batchelor, Stephen 2012: “A Secular Buddhism,”
Journal of Global Buddhism, 13: 87–107; for a brief critical reply see
Anālayo 2013: “The Chinese Parallels to the Dhammacakkappavattana-
sutta (2),” Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 5: 9–41;
p. 30f note 60.
2
SN 12.1 at SN II 1: evam etassa kevalassa dukkhakkhandhassa sam-
udayo hoti.
3
Bodhi, Bhikkhu 1980: Transcendental Dependent Arising, A Transla-
tion and Exposition of the Upanisa sutta, Kandy: Buddhist Publication
Society.
4
Anālayo 2011: “Right View and the Scheme of the Four Truths in
Early Buddhism, The Saṃyukta-āgama Parallel to the Sammādiṭṭhi-
sutta and the Simile of the Four Skills of a Physician,” Canadian Jour-
nal of Buddhist Studies, 7: 11–44.
5
Anālayo 2018: “The Influxes and Mindful Eating,” Insight Journal,
44: 31–42; see also Anālayo 2019: “Food and Insight,” Insight Journal,
45: 1–10.

42 Insight Journal volume 45 • 2019