After explaining the Noble Truth of Suffering, Lord Buddha continued with an explanation of the origin of suffering. He pointed to craving as the origin of suffering - craving for rebirth in the Cycle of Existence leads living beings to continue to be reborn again and again in the various planes of existence. He taught that being enamoured with sense pleasures i.e. images, sounds, perfumes, tastes and touch keeps beings prisoner. The sense pleasures are like fetters which force living beings to continue to arise and pass away in the Cycle of Existence, and to have to endure the implicit suffering, all the way from the suffering of birth, to old age, illness and death - just as if one were being stalked endlessly by the grim reaper who is ready at all times to terminate one's life with a slash of his sickle. The life of beings is thus unspeakably difficult, dying in suffering from one realm and being born into more suffering in another realm - dying from there into yet another, and the cycle goes on and on, for as long as beings are subject to craving, the fetter that keeps all beings as captive travellers in the Cycle of Existence.

The Three forms of Craving

The Lord Buddha taught that there are three sorts of craving: craving for sense-pleasure [kaamata.nhaa], craving for the form realms [bhavata.nhaa] and craving for the formless realms [vibhavata.nhaa].

1. Craving for Sense-Pleasure [kaamata.nhaa]

Craving for sense-pleasure is the grasping of the mind when it is under the influence of greed or desire for the objects of the senses i.e. images, sounds, perfumes, tastes and touch. It is the craving of those who think that true happiness can be obtained via sense pleasure. Such people may wish to be reborn in the human realm or one of the heavens, all of which are in the Sphere of Sense Pleasure [kaamabhaava]. Those with such an attitude to life, try to do as many meritorious actions as possible (e.g. keeping the Precepts or being generous) in order to be reborn in heaven. Such is the attitude of one motivated by craving for sense-pleasure and the Lord Buddha enumerated it as one of the Noble Truths of the Origin of Suffering.

2. Craving for the Form Realms [bhavata.nhaa]

Craving for the Form Realms is the attitude of those who wish to be reborn in the Brahmaa-world or the Realms of Form [ruupabhava]. Such people believe that being able to attain the Brahmaa-world will allow them to escape from the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death. Such people devote all their efforts to the attainment of the form-absorptions [jhaana] in order to pass away into the Brahmaa-world at death.

The ascetics who subscribe to this dogma and who have developed a certain degree of meditation, may acquire the ability to recollect their previous lives and will know what form they had taken in previous lives. When passing away, the highest realm in which they can be reborn will be the Form-Brahmaa world1. Ascetics subscribing to this dogma believe that Brahmaa is the Ultimate Truth. Thus, having taken human birth, they spend all their time trying to develop the absorptions in order to try to be born in the Brahmaa world next time round. Such an attitude is driven by craving for the Brahmaa world and the Lord Buddha enumerated it as one of the Noble Truths of the Origin of Suffering.

3. Craving for the Formless Realms [vibhavata.nhaa]

Craving for the Formless Realms is the dogma of those who wish to be reborn in the formless Brahmaa-world or the formless Realms [aruupabhaava]. Such people believe that being able to attain the formless Brahmaa-world will allow them to escape eternally from rebirth in lower realms and that it will allow them to attain Nirvana.

The ascetics who subscribe to this attitude, who have developed a certain degree of meditation, may acquire the ability to know what awaits them after death. The limits of the knowledge of such ascetics are the Formless Brahmaa Realms - knowledge gained as the result of developing the formless absorptions [aruupajhaana]. Such ascetics misunderstand that being reborn in the Formless Brahmaa world will release them from suffering - thus all their time in the human world is spent trying to develop the formless absorptions in order to try to be born in the Formless Brahmaa Realms. Such an attitude is one driven by craving for the Formless Brahmaa world and the Lord Buddha enumerated it as one of the Noble Truths of the Origin of Suffering.

The wise recognize these three forms of craving as the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering because they are the prime mover for all subsequent forms of suffering. Craving for sense pleasure is the origin of all the suffering connected with rebirth in the Sphere of Sensual Pleasure. Craving for the Brahmaa world or the Formless Brahmaa World are the origins of all the suffering connected with rebirth in the Spheres of the Form-Brahmaas and the Formless-Brahmaas respectively. It is for this reason that craving is explained as being the sole cause of all forms of suffering - suffering cannot be blamed on any other thing. If craving can be avoided, the suffering of birth, old age and death will be escaped.

Craving has been responsible since the beginning of time for keeping beings in the endless cycle of birth and rebirth in the cycle of existence without offering any possible refuge. It is for this reason that craving has been called 'samudaya' the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering.

Craving for Sense Pleasure leads to the Hell Realms

The origin of craving is the desire of the unwholesome mind - and following such craving leads to evil acts. Desire was characterized by the Lord Buddha as being attached to the things we like. It is like a monkey trapped by glue in a monkey trap. Normally it sticks to the trap when it sits down, and trying to prise its body free, it uses its legs to push - however, it only succeeds in sticking its feet to the glue as well. Trying to bite its way free, its mouth sticks to the glue as well. In the same way, when we become enamoured of something, at first we think we are simply showing approval for that thing, but later we find that we have become sentimentally attached to that thing and can no longer let go.

The action of desire on the mind is to supplement one's attachment to an object of desire until we find it impossible to extricate ourselves any more - just like a piece of meat that is thrown into a burning hot pan will burn and stick to that pan as soon as it comes in contact. Once attachment and desire become the habitual way of thinking for a person, their personality changes to become more and more materialistic.

Once materialism or habitual craving becomes engrained in a person's heart, it becomes difficult for them to give away any of their wealth, even for charitable purposes. They become so attached to their wealth, that they feel nothing for the plight of monks, hermits, the poor, beggars or orphans. It is like taking a clean white cloth and dying it a different colour - even if you were to rinse that cloth a hundred times in clean water, you would be unable to restore it to its original whiteness. In the same way as dye in a cloth, desire tends to impregnate the mind almost irrevocably making one attached to one's wealth.

The risk of entertaining such desire in the mind is that it may be the reason for a person to be reborn in one of the four unfortunate realms [abhaayabhuumi]. Just as the swift currents of a river tend to sweep away all things to the ocean that fall within its reach, desire will tend to pull all beings who entertain it in their mind, away to the hell realms.

The Universe is too small to contain Sense-Craving

The Lord Buddha taught that the extent of craving in the minds of living beings is so great as to be beyond words. Supposing all the craving in existence were to manifest itself in concrete form as a tree or as a mountain, such a tree or a mountain would have to be so large that it is not certain whether the whole universe would be large enough to contain it - because everybody has their endless desires and attachments and it is doubtful whether a whole ship would be large enough to contain everything a person desires for.

The craving that arises in the minds of men, pushes them in the direction of sinful actions - for example, killing others. Under the influence of craving, normal people become capable of performing the most heinous of sins. This is why the Lord Buddha declared that:

"Craving is the wishfulness, attachment and captivation with the world of the aggregates and is the origin of suffering."

Craving as the Cause of Unwholesome Behaviours

Those beings that try to attain happiness dependent upon the pleasures of the five senses are wont to commit unwholesome behaviours as outlined in the Ten Paths of Unwholesomeness [akusalakammapatha], which comprise three unwholesome deeds, four unwholesome ways of speaking and three unwholesome ways of thinking:

Unwholesome actions comprise:

- killing living beings [paa.naatipaata]
- stealing [adinnaadaana]
- committing adultery [kaamesumicchaacaara]

Unwholesome speech comprises:

- telling lies [musaavaada]
- divisive speech [pisu.navaacaa]
- harsh speech, insults and swearing [pharusavaacaa]
- idle chatter, frivolous talk [samphappalaapa]

Unwholesome thought comprises:

- covetousness [abhijjhaa]
- vengeful thinking [byaapaada]
- false view [micchaa di.t.thii]

Most people know that these ten behaviours of the Path of Unwholesomeness are to be strictly avoided, but under the influence of craving for sense-pleasure which lurks in the mind, they cannot avoid the temptation of these behaviours and lose their fear and shame of the contingent retribution. Those who have habitually committed these behaviours tend to be reborn in the unfortunate (hell) realms after death. This is why the Lord Buddha pointed to craving as the Origin of all suffering in the Sphere of the Sense Pleasures.

Those who wish for human wealth1, heavenly wealth (in any of the lower six levels of heaven) and who expend effort in generosity and keeping the Precepts, and who conduct themselves in accordance with the Tenfold Path of Wholesomeness [kusalakammapatha], when they are reborn in the human world, they will be endowed with human wealth - or if they are born in the heaven realms, they will be endowed with heavenly wealth. However, hankering after such wealth, even though it is acquired by honest means, is still subject to suffering because it contains craving which is the origin of suffering. Even the craving for the Brahmaa-world and the Formless Brahmaa-world still trap living beings in the cycle of existence. An example of those who have craving for the Brahmaa-world [bhavata.nhaa] or the formless Brahmaa-world [vibhavata.nhaa] are those who strive in meditation by calm [samatha] and insight [vipassanaa]1 and who set their heart on being born in the Brahmaa-world or the formless Brahmaa-world by the ignorance of the false view of eternalism (sassatadi.t.thi or ucchedadi.t.thi), thinking that those born their are unaffected by old age, sickness or death. Such craving is an origin of suffering, because it is hankering after something that keeps one prisoner in the Cycle of Existence, constantly dying and being reborn. This is why the Lord Buddha pointed to craving as the Origin of all suffering.