7: The Attainment of Buddhahood – 401
with the axe of the path-knowledge (
magga-ñāṇa
) and you are like an
uprooted stump. All the rafters of the defilements firmly fixed in the
decorated house of the aggregates have now been broken to pieces
without leaving even a slight trace of past tendencies and inherent
inclinations. Ignorance (
avijjā
), the king of the house, which keeps the
four truths and Nibbāna hidden from view and which keeps them far, far
away has been pulverised. My mind, which is free from the dirt-like
defilements, has reached Nibbāna, the palace of peace, out of the scope of
the conditioned (
saṅkhāra
) and all suffering of Saṁsāra. I, the supreme
Buddha of the three worlds, have realised the fourth (
Arahatta
) path and
fruit, the extinction of the 108 forms of craving to the delight and
encomium of the Devas and Brahmas of the 10,000 world-element.
The 108 forms of craving (
taṇhā
) are the chief root of suffering and the
cause of the ever-continuing cycle of rebirths. They are synonymous with
greed (
lobha
or
rāga
). It is of three aspects: sensual craving (
kāma
-
tanhā
);
craving for rebirth, especially in higher realms (
bhava
-
taṇhā
); craving for
annihilation of the self (
vibhava-tanhā
).
Corresponding to the six sense objects, each of these aspects of craving
multiplies into six forms of craving, viz. craving for visible objects (
rūpa-
tanhā
), for sounds (
sadda-taṇhā
), odours (
gandha-taṇhā
), tastes (
rasa-
taṇhā
), bodily impressions (
phoṭṭhabbha-taṇhā
), mental impressions
(
dhamma-taṇhā
), thus totalling eighteen forms of craving.
Again, taking into consideration the three periods of time, as present, past
and future, which apply to each of these eighteen forms of craving, one
can distinguish 54 different forms of craving. Finally, these 54 forms of
craving can arise in the mind continuum of one’s own or of others; thus
108 forms of craving are enumerable in all.
There are two kinds of exalted utterance (
udāna
): that which is uttered
only mentally (
manasā-udāna
) and which is uttered verbally (
vacasā-
udāna
). The exalted utterance beginning with
Aneka-jāti-saṁsāraṁ
,
“unable to cut off the root of repeated existences in Saṁsāra,” etc., was
recited by the Buddha only mentally and thus should be deemed as uttered
mentally (
manasā-udāna
). The exalted utterances in the Udāna
text
beginning with (Ud 1.1):
Yadā have pātu bhavanti dhammā
, “when the
nature of things becomes really manifest,” etc., were uttered verbally by
the Buddha. So the
exalted utterances in the Udāna
text should be regarded
as uttered verbally (
vacasā-udāna
).