II. The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

The Threefold Wanting

SN 56.11 Now this is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this wanting (taṅha) which leads to rebirth, accompanied by enjoyment and desire, seeking delight now here, now there; that is, wanting related to the five senses, wanting to be, and wanting not to be (annihilation).

The Origin of Wanting

DN 22 And where does this wanting arise and become established? Wherever in the world there is anything agreeable and pleasurable, there this wanting arises and becomes established.

Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, mind-objects in the world are agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

The six consciousnesses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind) are agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

Experience of the six senses is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

The perception of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

Will in regard to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

The wanting of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

Thinking of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

Fantasising about sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mind-objects is agreeable and pleasurable, and there this wanting arises and becomes established.

And that is called the noble truth of the origin of suffering.

Dependent Origination of All Phenomena

MN 38 On seeing a sight (the same with the other six senses), you want it if it is pleasing; you try to get rid of it if it is unpleasing. You abide with mindfulness (and wisdom) of the five senses (the body) unestablished, with a limited mind, and you do not understand as it actually is the liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom wherein those deceiving and oppressive states cease without remainder.

Engaged as you are in favouring and opposing, whatever experience you have—whether pleasant or painful or neutral—you delight in that experience, welcome it, and remain holding to it. As you do so, delight arises in you. Now delight in experience is a fuel. With fuel (upādāna) as condition, states of existence develop; with states of existence as condition, rebirth; with rebirth as condition, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, negativity and distress come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.

Kamma

Present Kamma-Result (Sandiṭṭhika)

MN 13 With the five senses as the cause, the source and the basis, the culprit being simply the five senses, Presidents quarrel with Prime Ministers, politicians with each other, priests with imams, businessmen with householders, monks with nuns; parents quarrel with each other and with their children, sibling with sibling, and friend with friend. And here in their quarrels, brawls, and disputes they attack each other with abuse, weapons or lawsuits, whereby they incur death, injury or loss. Now this too is a danger in the case of the five senses, a mass of suffering in this very life … the cause being simply the five senses.

Again, with the five senses as the cause … people steal, commit fraud, sleep with other people’s partners, commit domestic violence, sexually abuse their children; and when they are caught, they are imprisoned and ruined. Now this too is a danger in the case of the five senses, a mass of suffering in this very life … the cause being simply the five senses.

Future Kamma-Result (Samparāyika)

Again, with the five senses as the cause, the source and the basis, the culprit being simply the five senses, people indulge in misconduct of body, speech, and mind. Having done so, after death they reappear in states of misery, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in hell. Now this is a danger in the case of the five senses, a mass of suffering in the life to come, having the five senses as its cause, its source and its basis, the cause being simply the five senses.

Dhp 127 You will not find a spot in the world
Not in the sky, not in the ocean,
Not inside a mountain cave
Where you will be free from the results of kamma.

Kamma as Volition

AN 6.63 “Volition is kamma,” I say. For having willed, you act by body, speech, or mind. And what is the diversity of kamma? There is kamma to be experienced in hell, or in the animal realm, or in the ghost realm (afflicted spirits), or in the human world, and there is kamma to be experienced in the deva (heavenly) world. And what is the result of kamma? The result of kamma, I say, is threefold: [to be experienced] in this very life, or in the next life, or in some subsequent life.

Inheritance of Deeds

AN 10.216 Beings are the owners of their kamma, the heirs of their kamma; they have kamma as their origin, kamma as their property, kamma as their resort; whatever kamma they do, good or bad, they are its heirs.

AN 3.34 Wherever that kamma ripens, it is there that you experience its result, either in this very life, or in the next life, or in some subsequent life.

SN 22.99 There comes a time, when the great oceans dry up and evaporate and no longer exist, but still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming through rebirth and death, blinded by delusion and addicted to wanting.

There comes a time, when the Himalayas, the king of mountains, burns up and perishes and no longer exists, but still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming through rebirth and death, blinded by delusion and addicted to wanting.

There comes a time when the earth burns up, turns into cosmic dust which spreads throughout the universe, and no longer exists; but still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming through rebirth and death, blinded by delusion and addicted to wanting.