ཉེ་བར་ལེན་པ། | Glossary of Terms

Also means “grasping” or “clinging;” but has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent arising, between craving (tṛṣṇā, sred pa) and becoming or existence (bhava, srid pa).

Also means “grasping” or “clinging,” but has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent arising, between craving (Skt. tṛṣṇā, Tib. sred pa) and becoming or existence (Skt. bhava, Tib. srid pa). In some texts, four types of appropriation are listed: of desire (Skt. rāga), of view (Skt. dṛṣṭi), of rules and observances as paramount (Skt. śīla­vrata­parāmarśa), and of belief in a self (Skt. ātmavāda).

Also means “grasping” or “clinging;” but has a particular meaning as the ninth of the twelve links of dependent arising, between craving (tṛṣṇā, sred pa) and becoming or existence (bhava, srid pa). In some texts, four types of appropriation are listed: of desire (rāga), of view (dṛṣṭi), of rules and observances as paramount (śīla­vrata­parāmarśa), and of belief in a self (ātmavāda). Only the first three are mentioned in this sūtra.

The ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination. See “dependent origination.”

Ninth of the twelve links of dependent arising. For the four appropriations, see UT22084-057-006-398.

In some texts, four types of appropriation are listed: of desire (rāga), of view (dṛṣṭi), of rules and observances as paramount (śīla­vrata­parāmarśa), and of belief in a self (ātmavāda). The term nye bar len pa also means “grasping” and it was rendered as such when it refers to the ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination, between craving and becoming.

Ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination.

Ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination.

The ninth of the twelve links of dependent origination, “grasping” more broadly refers to the exceptionally strong form of craving through which we remain attached to and fixated on cyclic existence.

The ninth link of dependent arising.

As one of the twelve links of dependent origination, the noun form upādāna means to cling to existence.

The term upādāna figures in at least two prominent contexts within basic Buddhist classifications. Firstly, the five aggregates are also called “aggregates of clinging” when they refer to a nonliberated person. According to the Nibandhana commentary on Distinctly Ascertaining the Meanings, they are called “aggregates of clinging” for different reasons: they are “born from the clingings” because the aggregates arise due to the three mental afflictions of attraction, aversion, and confusion, which can also be called “clingings”; or, they are so called because the aggregates are under the control of the “clingings,” in the sense that it is due to the three mental afflictions that the aggregates remerge, after death, in a new realm of existence (Samtani 1971, pp. 87–88; the explanation in the Nibandhana partly follows Abhidharma­kośa­bhāṣya on kārikā 1.8; see Pradhan 1967, p. 5).

Another important context of the term upādāna is as the ninth of the “twelve parts of dependent arising.” Here upādāna arises with craving (tṛṣṇā) as its condition. The difference between “craving” and “clinging” is explained by Vasubandhu as follows: it is “craving” when one strongly wants enjoyments but has not yet started searching for those objects of enjoyments (yāvan na tadviṣaya­paryeṣṭim āpadyate); it is “clinging” once one starts seeking ways to obtain those objects of enjoyments and thus runs in all directions (viṣaya­prāptaye paryeṣṭim āpannaḥ sarvato dhāvati). See Pradhan 1967, p. 132.