The Nature of Craving and Liberation : หน้า 91/263

tinguish craving completely. Even though snares are usually made of tough material, there is no snare as tough as that of craving. Even though a prisoner is shackled with iron or chains, wooden stocks or ropes, his chances of escape are more than his chance of es- caping from craving. If a prisoner wants to cut himself free from conventional fetters all he needs to find for himself is a sharp cutting edge. However, for the fetters of craving, the sharpest knife cannot help. The only thing that can cut de- finitely through craving is the wisdom of the attainment of arahanthship. Those who wish to endow themselves with the sword of the arahat’s wisdom need first to forgo attach- ment to sense pleasure, and must strive in the cultivation of the Precepts, practising bhutanaga austerities and medita- tion. Only when these virtues have been fully developed can the sword of the arahat’s wisdom be attained, allowing the practitioner to cut away the fetters of craving for good. 3. Craving compared to a spider Those who are still attached to sense-pleasure are vulner- able to the temptations of desire and anger and ignorance and are wont to be swept away by the currents of craving. They are unable to find a way to slip through craving’s net. In this sense, craving is just the same in the way it traps living beings as a spider which spins a large web by which to trap small insects. When a spider has finished spinning its web, it is wont to lie in wait at the centre. When other insects get caught in the web, they awake the spider which comes quickly to suck its victim dry. Its appetite satisfied, the spider returns to its place at the centre of the web — it has no need to go anywhere else. In just the same way, those who are attached to sense-