Misunderstood Truths
In an earlier post, I talked about how the first of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism is often mistranslated as “life is suffering (dukkha).” This first Truth emphasizes how grief is an essential part of emotional pain. It will come as no surprise that the second of these Truths is also often misunderstood. The second Truth is usually translated as “attachment and aversion are the root causes of suffering (samudaya).” Here, I want to focus on the idea of attachment in this translation.
True Meaning of Attachment
The original Pali word for attachment is tanhā (from the Sanskrit root tṛṣṇā), which means ‘thirst.’ The deeper meanings of this word are craving, longing, greed, and so on [1]. Unfortunately, when tanhā is translated as attachment, it combines natural feelings like thirst, hunger, and desire with the negative concepts like craving and greed. This has led to the mistaken idea that Buddhism tells people to give up all desires!
Buddhist Wisdom Meets Psychotherapy
One of the closest translations of tanhā in psychotherapy was the concept of demandingness as popularized by the well-known psychologist Albert Ellis. Demandingness became one of the pillars of his framework, called Rational-Emotive-Behaviour Therapy (REBT). It talks about people insisting on what they “should,” “must,” or “ought” to have [2]. Ellis was known to have read Buddhist texts and clearly saw the connections between them and his own ideas [3]. I have a funny story about this. I attended a lecture where a respected professor said he couldn’t buy into the Buddhist idea of attachment because he didn’t want to give up any of his desires. Later in the same lecture, he praised Ellis for showing how demandingness can be a huge problem in society! If only we could do a “find-and-replace” of all the mistranslations of tanhā / attachment from ‘desire’ to ‘addiction.’ In that case, I doubt that the professor would have publicly admitted to not wanting to give up his addictions!
Modern Addictions, Old Patterns
Many people do want to give up their addictions, though. These addictions come in many forms – alcohol, drugs, pills, nicotine, porn, sex, social media, gambling, shopping, food, video games, and even work, to name a few. Buddhist studies also included addictions to mental states [1], which would be familiar to anyone who has been ‘addicted to love’, as the song goes. Some addictions involve everyday activities, such as getting food, working, or going shopping, but they can become excessive. While addiction treatment has usually focused on the object of the addiction, such as alcohol or smoking, there is growing awareness about its underlying causes. For example, in his popular book, In The Realm of The Hungry Ghosts, physician and addiction expert, Dr. Gabor Maté, describes addicted people as being stuck in the Buddhist cosmic state of the Hungry Ghosts, where they are forever craving their objects of addiction [4]. Maté states that addictions come from trauma and insecure relationships in childhood. In his view, traumatic experiences create a ‘void’ in the person’s sense of self, which they then try to fill through addiction.
Grief and Trauma
Of course, trauma and difficult relationships in childhood can cause significant grief. But as I noted in another post, trauma is not the only cause for grief, as it can arise from other kinds of negative experiences as well. Many people cope with their grief using addictive behaviours, which can provide temporary relief, but ultimately make it harder to deal with that grief in the long run.
Rethinking Attachment
To sum it up, the attachment part of the second Noble Truth is better understood as “addictive behaviours get in the way of processing our grief and increase the overall suffering.” In future posts, I will discuss the strategies from these ancient teachings that can help overcome these addictive behaviours and bring more freedom and choice into a person’s life.
References
- Rāhula, W. (1974). What the Buddha taught. Grove Press.
- Ellis Institute. (2013, January). Demandingness or “The rules of life: Perceived abilities and $0.02.” The Albert Ellis Institute. https://albertellis.org/2013/01/demandingness-or-the-rules-of-life-perceived-abilities-and-2-cents/
- Ellis A. Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy. NY: Carol Publishing; 1991.
- Maté, G. (2018). In the realm of hungry ghosts: Close encounters with addiction. Vermilion.
