Dhammapada Chapter 24: Craving

Craving (tanha) is Buddhism's diagnosis of suffering's root, and this chapter is its natural history. In the heedless, craving grows like a creeping vine, and the cravers leap existence to existence like a monkey in the forest seeking fruit (24.1). Whomever it overcomes, sorrows grow like watered grass (24.2); whoever overcomes it, sorrows fall away like water-drops from a lotus leaf (24.3). The practical instruction follows: dig craving up by the root, as one digs up fragrant usira root by removing the grass around it (24.4) — for like a tree cut down but not uprooted, suffering regrows as long as latent craving remains (24.5).

The chapter's analysis of bondage is unsentimental: iron, wood, and rope are not strong bonds, say the wise — the real fetters are attachment to jewels, ornaments, spouses, and children, bonds that seem loose yet drag one down and are hard to escape (24.12–24.13). Its horizon verse points past all three tenses: let go of the past, the future, and the present, and cross to the far shore of becoming (24.15). And its superlative verse crowns the theme: the gift of Dhamma surpasses every gift, its taste every taste — and the destruction of craving conquers all suffering (24.21).