The Cause of Suffering--samudaya
The principle cause of suffering is the attachment to "desire" or "craving", tanha. Both desire to have (wanting) and desire not to have (aversion).
- Desire for sense-pleasures--kama-tanha, which manifests itself as wanting to have pleasant experiences; the taste of good food, sexual experiences, good music, getting high or drunk, etc.
- Desire to become--bhava-tanha, is the ambition that comes with wanting attainments or recognition or fame. It is the craving to “be somebody” at to get attention.
- Desire to get rid of--vibhava-tanha, is our desire to eliminate unpleasant experiences in life: unpleasant sensations, anger, fear, jealousy.
The clinging to desire comes from our experience that short-term satisfaction comes from following desire. We ignore the fact that satisfying our desires doesn't bring an end to them.
Everyone is aware of suffering and knows when they have unpleasant sensations such as hunger, cold, or sickness and recognize these as things that one doesn't like. But the first noble truth includes awareness of all the ramifications of suffering because it encompasses the very nature and essence of suffering. This includes knowledge of the subtle and the obvious aspects of suffering. The obvious aspect of suffering is immediate pain or difficulty in the moment. Subtle suffering is more difficult to understand because it begins with happiness. But by its very nature, this happiness must change because it cannot go on forever. Because it must change into suffering, then subtle suffering is the non-permanence of pleasure.
