Tanha

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Taṇhā (Pāli: तण्हा) or Tṛṣṇā (Sanskrit: तृष्णा) means "thirst, desire, craving, wanting, longing, yearning".

Synonyms:

愛 Cn: ài; Jp: ai; Vi: ái
Tibetan: sred.pa

The most basic of these meanings (the literal meaning) is "thirst"; however, in Buddhism it has a technical meaning that is much broader. In part due to the variety of possible translations, taṇhā is sometimes used as an untranslated technical term by authors writing about Buddhism.

	The 12 Nidānas:
	Ignorance
	↓
	Formations
	↓
	Consciousness
	↓
	Mind & Body
	↓
	Six Sense Bases
	↓
	Contact
	↓
	Feeling
	↓
	Craving
	↓
	Clinging
	↓
	Becoming
	↓
	Birth
	↓
	Old Age & Death

Taṇhā is the eighth link in the Twelve Nidanas of Dependent Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda/Paṭiccasamuppāda). Taṇhā is also the fundamental constituent of Samudaya - the Noble Truth of the Origination of Suffering, the second of the Four Noble Truths. Buddhist teachings describe the craving for sense objects which provide pleasant feeling, or craving for sensory pleasures. Taṇhā is a term for wanting to have or wanting to obtain. It also encompasses the negative as in wanting not to have. We can crave for pleasant feelings to be present, and for unpleasant feelings not to be present (i.e., to get rid of unpleasant feelings).

According to Buddhist teachings, craving, or desire, springs from the notion that if one's desires are fulfilled it will, of itself, lead to one's lasting happiness or well-being. Such beliefs normally result in further craving/desire and the repeated enactment of activities to bring about the desired results. This is graphically depicted in the Bhavacakra. The repeated cycling through states driven by craving and its concomitant clinging Upadana.

The meaning of Taṇhā (craving, desire, want, thirst), extends beyond the desire for material objects or sense pleasures. It also includes the desire for life (or death, in the case of someone wishing to commit suicide), the desire for fame (or infamy, its opposite), the desire for sleep, the desire for mental or emotional states (e.g., happiness, joy, rapture, love) if they are not present and one would like them to be. If we experience, say depression or sorrow, we can desire its opposite. The meaning of Taṇhā is far-reaching and covers all desire, all wanting, all craving, irrespective of its intensity.

Taṇhā is sometimes taken as interchangeable with the term addiction, except that that would be too narrow a view. Taṇhā tends to include a far broader range of human experience and feeling than medical discussions of addiction tend to include.

Further analysis of Taṇhā reveals that desire for conditioned things cannot be fully satiated or satisfied, due to their impermanent nature. This is expounded in the Buddhist teaching of Anitya impermanence, change (Pali: Anicca).

The Buddhist solution to the problem of Taṇhā (craving, wanting) is the next of the four noble truths, Nirodha, the cessation of suffering which is Noble Eightfold Path and the Six Paramita. The cessation of suffering comes from the quenching (nibbuta) of tanha, which is not the destruction of tanha as much as the natural cessation of it that follows its true and real satisfaction. The problem is not that we desire, but rather that we desire unsatisfactory (dukkha) things, namely sensual pleasures, existence and non-existence. When we have Right Effort, when we desire that which yields satisfaction, then tanha is not the obstacle to enlightenment but the vehicle for its realization.

Preceded by Vedanā	Twelve Nidānas Tṛṣṇā	Succeeded by Upādāna

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The History of Buddhism spans from the 6th century BCE to the present, starting with the birth of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama. This makes it one of the oldest religions practiced today.
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According to the scriptures of all Buddhist schools, the first Buddhist Council was held soon after the nirvana of the Buddha under the
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Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear.
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The Four Noble Truths (Pali: Cattāri ariyasaccāni, Sanskrit: Catvāri āryasatyāni, Chinese: Sìshèngdì, Thai: อริยสัจสี่, Ariyasaj Sii
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Noble Eightfold Path (Pāli: Ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo; Sanskrit: Ārya 'ṣṭāṅga mārgaḥ; Chinese: 八正道, Bāzhèngdào; Japanese: 八正道,
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Śīla (Sanskrit) or sīla (Pāli) is usually rendered into English as "behavioral discipline", "morality", or ethics. It is often translated as "precept". It is an action that is an intentional effort.
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Nirvāṇa ( Sanskrit:
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Three Jewels, also called the Three Treasures, the Three Refuges, or the Triple Gem, are the three things that Buddhists give themselves to, and in return look toward for guidance, in the process known as taking refuge.
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Dukkha (Sanskrit duhkha) or unsatisfactoriness, 'dis-ease' (also often translated "suffering," though this is somewhat misleading). Nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction.
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The five skandhas (Sanskrit) or khandhas (Pāli) are the five "aggregates" which categorize or constitute all individual experience according to Buddhist phenomenology.
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Buddhist cosmology is the description of the shape and evolution of the universe according to the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries.

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Rebirth in Buddhism is the doctrine that the consciousness of a person (as conventionally regarded), upon the death or dissolution of the aggregates (skandhas) which make up that person, becomes one of the contributing causes for the arising of a new group of skandhas which may
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For a general discussion of the concept, see Dharma.

Dharma (Sanskrit: धर्म) or Dhamma (Pāli: धम्म) in Buddhism has two primary meanings:

the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment

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The doctrine of Pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit: प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद) or Paticcasamuppāda
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Karma (Sanskrit: कर्मन karman, Pāli: कमा Kamma) means "action" or "doing"; whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma.
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Pandita redirects here. For the butterfly genus, see Pandita (butterfly).

A number of noted individuals have been Buddhists.

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Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent and the founder of Buddhism.^[1] He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age.
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buddha (help info ) (Sanskrit: Awakened) is any being who has become fully awakened (enlightened), and has experienced Nirvana.
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The four stages of enlightenment in Buddhism are the four degrees of approach to full enlightenment as an Arahant which a person can attain in this life. The four stages are Sotapanna, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arahant.
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Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of meditation techniques that develop mindfulness, concentration, tranquility and insight. Core meditation techniques are preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through the millennia of teacher-student
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In English translations of Buddhist literature, householder denotes a variety of terms. Most broadly, it refers to any layperson, and most narrowly, to a wealthy and prestigious familial patriarch.
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Buddhist beliefs and practices vary according to region. There are distinctions between and within the Buddhism practised in various regions, including:

South Asia
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Theravada (Pāli: theravāda; Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda; literally, "the Way of the Elders") is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant
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East Asian Buddhism is a collective term for the schools of Buddhism that developed in the East Asian region, most of which are part of the Mahayana (which means "The Greater Vehicle") transmission.
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Tanha

Information about Tanha

Further reading

External links

1st Buddhist council (c. 5th century BCE)

Introduction

Historical Buddhist thinkers and founders of schools