Correcting SN 22.48; translating upādāna as fuel for grasping

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Greetings, Bhante, One correction and one question here.

SN 22.48. Yaṁ kiñci viññāṇaṁ atītānāgatapaccuppannaṁ …pe… yaṁ dūre santike vā sāsavaṁ upādāniyaṁ.

Any kind of consciousness at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; coarse or fine; inferior or superior; far or near, which is accompanied by defilements and is fuels grasping

Should it be, “…. and fuels grasping” rather than “… and is fuels grasping”

I struggled some with your translation of upādāna with the idea of “fuel for grasping” rather than simply “grasping”. For example, regarding the objects of the six senses, SN 35.118

Tassa taṁ anabhinandato anabhivadato anajjhosāya tiṭṭhato na tannissitaṁ viññāṇaṁ hoti na tadupādānaṁ. Anupādāno, bhikkhu parinibbāyati.

… you translate “[not approving, welcoming, and keeping clinging to them] their consciousness doesn’t have that as support and fuel for grasping. A mendicant free of grasping becomes extinguished.”

The sentence makes the objects knowable by the senses out to be the fuel, not the grasping itself. This would be the case when a mendicant “approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them,” or when the consciousness is “accompanied by defilement".
It’s a powerful sentence, but seems to be at odds with the definition of upādāna a mental factor, not the object.
Another example SN 22.121

Rūpaṁ, bhikkhave, upādāniyo dhammo, yo tattha chandarāgo, taṁ tattha upādānaṁ. … vedanā … saññā … saṅkhārā … viññāṇaṃ”

“Form … feeling … perception … choices … consciousness is something that fuels grasping. The desire and greed for it is the grasping.”

You translated upādāniyo dhammo as something that fuels grasping, while Bhikkhu Bodhi translates, more literally as “the things that can be clung to”

I know that when the mind is defiled, I can make any object into fuel to perpetuate suffering, just not sure whether that’s what the sutta is saying.

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“There was perplexity in me, Master Gotama, there was doubt: ‘How is the Dhamma of the ascetic Gotama to be understood?’”
“It is fitting for you to be perplexed, Vaccha, it is fitting for you to doubt. Doubt has arisen in you about a perplexing matter. I declare, Vaccha, rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel. Just as a fire burns with fuel, but not without fuel, so, Vaccha, I declare rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel.” SN 44:9

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Sa-upādānassa khvāhaṃ Vaccha upapattiṃ paññāpemi no anupādānassa. There is a double meaning here, with upādāna meaning both “fuel” and subjective “clinging,” but I have translated the sentence in consonance with the following simile. It was also in a discourse to Vacchagotta that the Buddha used his famous simile of the fire that goes out from lack of fuel to illustrate the status of one who has attained Nibbāna; see MN I 487,11–30.

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A little unsure if this is within the scope of this thread, but

I’m curious where/how the idea of upadana as a ‘subjective sense of clinging’ is justified/found in the suttas?

In Buddhist circles, people say things like “I was clinging to my anger” or “how can I be less attached?” — but it’s never quite clear to me what people mean when they say that.

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The word has a literal sense of ‘taking up’

So as a fire ‘takes up’ and burns fuel, the world is ‘on fire’ when we ‘take up’ or grasp at things.

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Hi Stephen :slight_smile:

Can you think of any examples from the suttas of what you’re saying here?

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The word upādāna is quite common in the suttas.

As for ‘the world’ being on fire, see the ‘fire sermon’.

Gombrich has written on the subject.

Also see this thread:

“mahāaggikkhandho purimassa ca upādānassa pariyādānā aññassa ca anupahārā anāhāro nibbāyeyya
As the original fuel (upādāna) is used up and no more is added, the bonfire would be extinguished due to lack of fuel (āhāra).”

SN 12.52

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Thanks @stephen These references give the context I was looking for.

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Thanissaro Bhikkhu has written a masterful book on upādāna as fuel for clinging. He goes a step further to explore the ancients view on fire to enlighten nibbana as a freedom without nihilism.