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# Upādāna

The thinking, pondering, planning, scheming that goes on in one desirous of obtaining some sort of pleasure in some form of existence.

References:

Dhammatalk: Tanha vs Upadana;
On Ven. Punnaji
Awakening Meditation
[MN 38]
Majjhima Nikaya I, Middle Length Sayings or Discourses.
38. Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta (Mahaata.nhaasankhaya), I.256
WP: The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving, 349
PTS: Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving, I.311
Mahatanhasankhaya Sutta The Major Discourse on Destruction of Craving (Part 2/2) Mahayamaka Vagga, Mulapannasa, Majjhima Nikaya, Suttanta Pitaka From 'Twenty-five Suttas from Mulapannasa' Burma Pitaka Association (Myanmar Tipitaka Association), 1989
[SN 2.12.52] Grasping, the Mrs. Rhys Davids translation,
Linked to the Pāḷi and Bhikkhu Thanissaro translation.
The Buddha likens contimplation of delight in sense pleasures to throwing fuel on a fire.
The subject in Pāḷi is 'upādāna' and the simile makes it clear that the idea is fueling or feeding. It looks like this was the sutta that resulted in Bhk. Thanissaro's translation 'sustinance', but here he has translated it as 'clinging'. It now looks to me like the whole idea of 'grasping' or 'clinging' is off the mark and arose out of a bias to see the series as a description of causation with an individuality as the agent. The individual clings or grasps; the phenomena needs fueling, sustenance, food, support.
see especially SN 4.44.009.

Pāḷi | MO | Hare | Horner | Punnaji | Bodhi | Rhys Davids | (Mrs)Rhys Davids | Thanissaro
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Upādāna | fuel previously: upholding, support, upkeep, [by way of] going-after-getting, grasping, temptations | grasping | grasping | personalization | clinging | grasping | grasping | clinging/sustenance
Kāmacchanda | upkeep of, going after getting pleasures |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Diṭṭhi | upkeep of, going after points of view, theories, working hypotheses | view | view | perspective | view | view | view | view
Silabbat- | upkeep of, going after rules and rituals | morals | moral habit | acts of omission letting go of behaviors rooted in self-centered emotional impulses | Virtue, Habits, Rule | Morality | Morality | Virtue
Attavād- | upkeep of, going after getting self |  |  |  |  |  |  |

Pāḷi Text Society
Pāḷi English Dictionary
Edited by T. W. Rhys Davids and William Stede
[EDITED ENTRY]

Upādāna [fr. upa + ā + dā] - (lit. that (material) substratum by means of which an active process is kept alive or going), fuel, supply, provision; adj. (*-) supported by, drawing one's existence from S I.69; II 85...; 2. (appld.) "drawing upon", grasping, holding on, grip, attachment; adj. (*-) finding one's support by or in, clinging to, taking up, nourished by. ...They are classified as 4 upādānāni or four Graspings viz. kām-, diṭṭh-, sīlabbat-, attavād- or the graspings arising from sense-desires, speculation, belief in rites, belief in the soul-theory D II.58; III.230; M I.51, 66; S II.3; V 59;... - For upādāna in var. connections see the foll. passages: D I.25; II.31, 33, 56; III.278; M I.66, 136 (attavād-) 266; S II.14, 17, 30, 85; III.10, 13 sq., 101, 135, 167, 191; IV.32, 87 sq., 102..., 390, 400 (= taṇhā); A IV.69; V.111 (upāy-);...
-kkhandha, usually as pañc- upādāna-kkhandhā the factors of the "fivefold clinging to existence"...D II.35, 301 sq.; III.223, 286; M I.61, 144, 185; III.15, 30, 114, 295;...
-kkhaya extinction or disappearance of attachment S II.54; A III.376 sq.;...
-nidāna the ground of upādāna; adj. founded on or caused by attachment...
-nirodha destruction of "grasping" Vin I.1 (in formula of paṭicca-samuppāda); S II.7; III.14; A I.177.
-paccaya = -nidāna S II.5; III 94...

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