three types of craving exists: 1) dwelling in lustfulness; 2) dwelling in ignorance regarding the true goals and values of life; 3) dwelling in hostility, envy, and hatred, including the extreme form of the desire to kill. A direct consequence of craving, according to the twelve-linked formula of existence, is attachment (upadana) to numerous things and states, most fundamentally manifesting in a person’s use of the terms “I” and “mine” in relation to their experience. Attachment is primarily connected to ignorance (avidya) of one’s nature and the construction of false concepts (ditthi) about one’s “self,” mistakenly understood as something permanent, which contradicts the Buddhist theory of anatmavada. Such attachment is the primary cause of remaining in samsara.
The source of tainted karma that leads to remaining in samsara, in addition to attachment (raga), often lies in hatred (dosa), the cause of which is also ignorance — the unawareness of the true nature of all beings and inanimate objects. This is not merely the result of insufficient knowledge, but a false worldview, a fabrication of the complete opposite of truth, a mistaken understanding of reality.
According to the Prajñāpāramitā sutras, the cause of suffering, in addition to ignorance and attachments, is also a multitude of “subtle mental types of ‘defilements’.”
Four aspects of the Truth of the Cause of Suffering
Causes (hetu): there are two causes of suffering — first, defilements (kleshas), and second, karma; in Buddhism there is no notion of any external causes of suffering; desires and attachments are the cause of all types of suffering. The conditional subject (“recipient”) of these desires, passions, and attachments essentially represents a set of cognitive relations, emotional and karmic cause-and-effect connections.
Source (samudaya): the source of all defilements, sufferings, and everything in the samsaric world is ignorance (avidya); the constant source and driving force of suffering is the conditional subject (“recipient”) of desires, attachments, and karmic connections.
Condition (pratyaya): the conditions for generating new negative karma and for reproducing the cycle of samsara are the defilements (kleshas); the conditions for the “influx” of suffering in future lives are desires, attachments, and the conditional subject (“recipient”) of these desires and attachments.