Trisna (Buddhism)

Longing for the substantial or for something to cling to in the inevitable process of change, there is a holding on to experience and to life. The very clinging to life is also the clinging to death. Since the essence of life is to change, the craving to arrest change makes this life one of suffering, dukkha. Change or disappearance of objects and states of existence only cause suffering if there is a desire to possess or selfishly enjoy them. The very fact that change can be enjoyed shows that it is not change but attitude towards it which causes suffering. Thus trisna or tanha, as the cause of suffering, is also the cause of continuing existence and of repeated becoming.

Craving for existence – bhava-trisna – is one of the seven tendencies or latent passions in Buddhism. Kama-trisna as craving for objects of sense is the fourth of the ten fetters which, in Hinayana Buddhism, bind the individual to this cycle. These two, together with craving for annihilation of the self, constitute the second of the four noble truths, pratiya samutpada. As such, trisna is the eighth of 12 links – nidana – perpetuating the cycle of birth and death as delineated in the Buddhist causally continuous doctrine of being. Kama-trisna together with rupa-trisna (craving for fine-material form) and arupa-trisna (craving for existence beyond form) are related to the triloka – three worlds.