Understanding Craving and its Effects : หน้า 89/263

yingly frequently, until our seeing wrong as right and harmful things as harmless will be our continuous perspective of the world. We lose our interest to train ourselves in meditation and in the absence of absorption or insight, false view prods us in the direction of unwholesome behaviour. The karmic fruits of such unwholesome behaviour will bring us retribution in both this life and the next. Commentorial Metaphors for Craving 1. Craving compared to resin The Lord Buddha compared craving to the resin of the persimmon tree or varnish which are some of the stickiest forms of sap. Anything which touches such resin will be stuck firmly. In the same way, the resin of craving sticks in our minds forcing us to attach to the things we love, indulge our emotions to the point we have no wish for anything else. The firmness with which craving attaches us is like a monk who has still not managed to attain transcendental [lokuttara] states of mind and who is thus still attached to his robes, bowl and other requisites. That living beings are obsessed with the sense-desire and sense objects, and seek pleasure from images, sounds, perfumes, tastes and touches, all derives at root from the action of craving. 2. Craving compared to a snare or a prisoner's chains Most people try to procure happiness from the pleasures of the five senses with the assumption that whenever they are able to gain their fill of sense pleasure, they will be truly satisfied. In the search for satisfaction, those people have to continue being born and reborn in the Cycle of Existence, and are unable to protect themselves from the hardship of existence — birth, old age, sickness and death — because of the action of craving.