Lobha, attachment or greed, is another akusala cetasika. Lobha does not arise with every akusala citta, it can arise only with eight types of citta, the eight types of lobha-mula-citta (1 See my AbhIdhamma in Daily Life, Chapter IV.) Lobha is a "root", hetu. The lobha-mula-cittas have both moha and lobha as their roots. 

     The Dhammasangani (1059), in the section where it deals with lobha as hetu, gives a long list of different names for lobha in order to illustrate its different shades and aspects. Lobha is compared to a creeper, it strangles its victim such as a creeper strangles a tree. It is like the ocean, it is insatiable. Lobha can be coarse or it can be more subtle such as hoping or expecting. It is a "bondage" because it binds beings in the round of births. It is a depravity because it corrupts the mind (2 See the Atthasalini II, Book II, Chapter II, 362.367.).

     The Visuddhimagga (XIV, 162) gives the following definition of lobha:

greed has the characteristic of grasping an object like "monkey lime". Its function is sticking, like meat put in a hot pan. It is manifested as not giving up, like the dye of lamp-black. In proximate cause is seeing enjoyment in things that lead to bondage. Swelling with the current of craving, it should be regarded as taking (beings) with it to states of loss, as a swift-flowing river does to the great ocean. 

     Greed has the characteristic of grasping like monkey lime. Monkey lime was used by hunters in order to catch monkeys. We read in the Kindred Sayings (V, Maha-vagga, Book III, Chapter I, 7, The monkey) that a hunter sets a trap of lime for monkeys. Monkeys who are free from "folly and greed" do not get trapped. We read:

    But a greedy, foolish monkey comes up to the pitch and handles it with one paw, and his paw sticks fast in it. Then, thinking: I'll free my paw, he seizes it with the other paw, but that too sticks fast. To free both paws he seizes them with one foot,. and that too sticks fast. To free both paws and the one foot, he lays hold of them with the other foot, but that too sticks fast. To flee both paws and both feet he lays hold of them with his muzzle: but that too sticks fast.
    So that monkey thus trapped in five ways lies down and howls, thus fallen on misfortune...

     Lobha is attached to many different kinds of objects and it has many degrees. Different names can denote the cetasika which is lobha, Raga (greed), abhijja (covetousness) and tanha (craving) are other names for lobha, when lobha is coarse it motivates akusala kamma patha (unwholesome course of action) through body, speech or mind. Because of lobha one may commit many kinds of bad deeds in order to obtain what one desires. If the degree of akusala is such that it motivates an evil deed, the result of it may be an unhappy rebirth or unpleasant experiences through the senses in the course of life. Lobha can motivate akusala kamma pathas through the body, which are stealing and sexual misbehaviour, and akusala kamma pathas through speech which is lying, slandering and idle talk. Lobha can motivate covetousness or abhijja, the desire to take away someone else's property, which is akusala kamma patha through the mind. Moreover, when it is accompanied by ditthi, it can motivate certain kinds of wrong view which are akusala kamma patha through the mind (1 Certain kinds of wrong view, not every kind, are akusala kamma patha through the mind. I shall deal with these in Chapter 16.). as regards covetousness, the Atthasalini (II, Part IX, Chapter I, 249) states that it should be regarded as the outstretched hand of the mind (reaching) for others' prosperity, if one merely wishes to have someone else's property but does not plan to take it away; greed is not akusala kamma patha. There are many degrees of greed and only when one really plans to take away someone else's property it is akusala kamma patha through the mind (2 Atthasalini I. Part III, Chapter V, 101.).
     We may not have the intention to steal, but our wish to obtain; something for ourselves can condition behaviour and speech which is not sincere. The Book of Analysis (Vibhanga, Chapter 17, 851) speaks about people who have "evil wishes", that is, who pretend to have qualities they do not possess; they may pretend to be virtuous, wise and even without defilements. The monk may behave in a hypocritical way in order to obtain requisites. The Vibhanga (861, 862) gives us striking examples of "guile" and "insinuating talk".

Therein, what is "guile"? In one who depends on gain, honour and fame, who has evil wishes, who is troubled by wishes: by the so called using of the requisites, by talking allusively, by the setting up or by the arranging or by the proper arranging of the posture: there is knitting the brows, act of knitting the brows, guile, being guileful, state of being guileful. This is called guile.
    Therein, what is "insinuating talk"? In one who depends on gain, honour and fame, who has evil wishes, who is troubled by wishes: that which to others is welcoming talk insinuating talk entertaining talk. Laudatory talk flattering talk inferential talk repeated inferential talk coaxing talk repeated coaxing talk constant pleasant talk servility (in talking), beansoupery (in talking), dandling (behaviour). This is called insinuating talk.

     These passages are also excellent reminders for laypeople: one may have lovely manners but in reality one may be full of hypocrisy and pretence. Pleasant speech can easily have selfish motives. Don't we want to be popular, to be liked by others? In order to endear ourselves to others we may even tell lies or slander. When there is mindfuIness of the present reality we can find out whether our nice way of speaking is in reality flattering and coaxing talk or not. Through mindfulness we can become more sincere in our behaviour.

     There is lobha, not only when we want to obtain things, but also when we enjoy pleasant sights, sounds, smells, flavours, tangible objects and mental objects. Don't we like softness while we are sitting or lying down? When we sit on a hard floor we have aversion, and when we sit in a comfortable chair we find it agreeable and then there is lobha. Are we not attached to temperature, to the temperature which is just right for us: not too hot, not too cold? When we drink coffee or tea we want it to be of the temperature we like. When eating and drinking we are attached not only to flavour, but also to temperature. And don't we like the smell of our food, the sight of it and the softness or hardness of it? There is bound to be attachment through each of the six doors, time and again.

     Lobha may be accompanied by pleasant feeling or by indifferent feeling. When it is accompanied by pleasant feeling there is enthusiasm (piti) as well. When there is pleasant feeling we are delighted with it and then pleasant feeling becomes another object of attachment. When there is attachment there is also ignorance, shamelessness, recklessness and restlessness (uddhacca). Ignorance does not see the true nature of the object of clinging, it does not see that it is only a conditioned reality which does not stay. Shamelessness is not ashamed of akusala and recklessness does not see its danger. Restlessness is instability due to akusala, it prevents the citta from applying itself to kusala. 

     Lobha can be accompanied by indifferent feeling and then it is not as intense as when it is accompanied by pleasant feeling. When we want to go somewhere or want to do something, lobha is likely to arise, but it may not always be accompanied by pleasant feeling, there may be indifferent feeling instead. Lobha-mula-citta with indifferent feeling is likely to arise countless times, but we are so ignorant, we do not notice it.

     All degrees of lobha are dangerous, even the more subtle forms of lobha. When we do evil deeds which harm others it is evident that lobha is dangerous. But when lobha is only enjoyment of a pleasant sight or sound and we do not harm other people, we find it harder to see the danger of lobha. Lobha, be it gross or more subtle, makes us enslaved. When there is lobha we cling to the object which is experienced at that moment and we take it for happiness. The next moment the pleasant object is gone and then we are likely to have aversion. The Buddha reminded people of the futility of sense-pleasures. We read in the Dhammapada (verses 146-149) :

What is laughter, what is joy, when the world is ever burning? 
    Shrouded by darkness, do you not seek a light? 
    Behold this beautiful body, a mass of sores, a heaped-up (lump), diseased, much thought of in which nothing lasts, nothing persists.
    Thoroughly worn out is this body, a nest of diseases, perishable:
    This putrid mass breaks up; truly life ends in death. .

     We read in the Middle Length Sayings (I, no. 26), in the "Discourse on the Ariyan Quest", that the Buddha spoke to the monks about the ariyan quest and the unariyan quest. The unariyan quest is the seeking of an the things which are impermanent. The Buddha spoke about things which ate "liable to birth". Birth is followed by decay and death. Whatever is born, what has arisen because of conditions, has to fall away, it cannot be true happiness. We read:

And what monks, is the unariyan quest? As to this, monks, someone, liable to birth because of self seeks what is likewise liable to birth; being liable to ageing because of self seeks what is likewise liable to ageing; being liable to decay because of self.. being liable to dying because of self.. being liable to sorrow because of self.. being liable to stain because of set seeks what is likewise liable to stain. And what, monks, would you say is liable to birth? Sons and wife, monks, are liable to birth, women-slaves and men-slaves are liable to birth, goats and sheep are liable to birth, cocks and swine are liable to birth, elephants, cows, horses and mares are liable to birth, gold and silver are liable to birth. These attachments, monks, are liable to birth; yet this (man), enslaved, infatuated, addicted, being liable to birth because of self seeks what is likewise liable to birth... 

     The Buddha taught people to be mindful of whatever reality appears. When akusala dhamma appears it can be object of awareness and right understanding. Some people may feel guilty when there is attachment to pleasant things and they may be inclined to think that they should not be mindful of lobha. If we have accumulations for arts such as painting or music should we give these up in order to develop vipassana? That would not be the right practice. We should know the realities of our daily life. One person has accumulations for art, another is skilful in cooking or writing, we all have different accumulations. A layman does not live the monk's life, he could not force himself to live as a monk. We should develop understanding in our daily life, because then we will see that whatever arises, does so because of its own conditions.

     The characteristic of lobha can be known only when it appears. When we help someone else there are likely to be many moments of attachment in between the moments of true generosity. Are we pleased to be in the company of the person we help, are we attached to him? Are we pleased with "our own" kusala and do we expect something in return for our kindness? Mindfulness of realities is the only way to know the different moments of wholesomeness and unwholesomeness more clearly. Mindfulness will prevent us from deluding ourselves.

     There may be attachment even to kusala, to calm or to mindfulness, sati. We want to have a great deal of sati and we want it to last, but wanting to have sati is not sati, it is clinging. We should not avoid being aware of such clinging when it appears because only if we know it as it is can it be eradicated.

     There are time and again experiences through the different doorways. There is seeing, hearing, the experience of tangible object or thinking. It seems that all these experiences arise immediately one after the other, However, they arise in different processes and in these processes there are "javana-cittas" (1 See my Abhidhamma in Daily Life, Chapter 14. There are usually seven cittas in a process performing the function of javana, "running through the object) which are either kusala cittas or akusala cittas. For example, shortly after hearing, which is vipakacitta (result of kamma) has arisen and fallen away, there may be attachment to sound, and then there are lobha-mula-cittas, performing the function of javana. Even during the sense-door process, before the object is experienced through the mind-door, lobha can arise. The javana-cittas which arise in the different processes of cittas, experiencing objects through the six doors, are more often akusala cittas then kusala cittas, but we are ignorant of them. After a sense-object such as sound is experienced through the ear-door, it is experienced by cittas arising in a mind-door process. The cittas arising in the mind-door process which follows upon the sense-door process, in this case the ear-door process, merely experience the sound, they do not think about it, and they do not know what kind of sound it is, After that process there can be other mind-door processes of cittas which think of the source of the sound, of the meaning of it, of concepts. The thinking of concepts after the seeing, hearing or the experiences through the other sense-doors, is usually done with lobha, even if we do not feel particularly glad. When we, for example, after hearing a sound, know that it is the sound of a bird, this is not hearing but thinking, and this is usually done with lobha. We want to know the meaning of what we hear. We want to know the meaning of all we have experienced through the senses. When we pay attention to the shape and form of things, after the seeing, there is thinking of concepts, which is usually done with clinging. We like to notice all the familiar things around us, we would not like to miss noticing them. Thus, we have many moments of clinging arising in sense-door processes and mind-door processes; we have many more moments of lobha than we ever thought and it is beneficial to realize this. It can remind us to be aware of the different realities which appear in order to know them as they are.

     The Buddha reminded people of the many forms of lobha in order to help them to develop right understanding. This is the aim of the many classifications of realities we find in the scriptures. Tanha, for example, is another word which denotes lobha. Tanha is usually translated as craving. Tanha can be classified in the following way (1 Book  of Analysis, Vibhanga, Chapter 17, Analysis of Small Items, 916.):

kama-tanha or sensuous craving
bhava-tanha or craving for existence
vibhava-tanha or craving for non-existence

    Bhava-tanha is craving for becoming. This kind of clinging may be accompanied by wrong view or not. The kind of bhava-tanha which is accompanied by wrong view, ditthi, is "eternity view", the belief that realities last. Because of eternity view one believes that there is a self who will continue to exist forever.

     There may also be clinging to rebirth without the wrong view of self who continues to exist. Clinging to the result of rupajhana (fine-material jhana), which is rebirth in a rupa-brahma plane, and ,clinging to the result of arupa-jhana (immaterial jhana), which is rebirth in an arupa-brahma plane, are forms of clinging which are included in bhava-tanha. 

     Vibhava-tanha, craving for non-becoming, is annihilation-belief which is a kind of wrong view. This is the belief that there is a self who will be annihilated after death. People who have this view do not see that so long as there are conditions for the arising of nama and rupa, they will arise again and again. Since they do not understand this they believe that there is no rebirth. 

     There are different ways of classifying tanha. The Visuddhimagga (XVII, 234-236) deals with hundred-and-eight kinds of craving. There are six kinds of craving for the objects experienced through the six doors,  and each of these six kinds can be reckoned as threefold according to its mode of occurrence as craving for sense-objects, craving for becoming and craving for non-becoming. As regards craving for becoming, the eternity view can arise in connection with what is experienced through each of the six doors: there is the belief that these objects last. As regards the craving for non-becoming, the annihilation view can arise in connection with what is experienced through each of the six doors. In this way one can count eighteen kinds of craving. Moreover, there can be craving for "one's own" colour or for colour outside oneself and even so with regard to the other objects, including) the objects of craving for becoming and craving for non-becoming. In this way one can count thirty six kinds of craving. If one takes into account craving in the past, craving in the present and craving in the future, there ate one hundred-and-eight kinds of craving. The different classifications of tanha remind us of the fact that there are many kinds of clinging to different objects.

     The sotapanna (the streamwinner, who has attained the first stage of enlightenment) has eradicated clinging which is accompanied by wrong view, but the other forms of clinging may still arise. The anagami (the non-returner, who has attained the third stage of enlightenment) has eradicated all forms of sensuous clinging, but he still clings to birth. He may cling to rupa-jhana and its result and to arupa-jhana and its result. He has no "eternity view" because he is without wrong view. The arahat has eradicated all kinds of clinging, he does not cling to any kind of rebirth. For him there are no longer conditions for rebirth. 

     When there is mindfulness of the present object more often, we will see more clearly how deep-rooted our clinging is. We can prove in this way that the Abhidhamma teaches about realities. We will learn that there is clinging to all the objects which are experienced through the six doors. 

     So long as there is clinging there will be birth, old age, sickness and death. Desire is the second noble Truth, the origin of dukkha We read in the Middle Length Sayings (III, no. 141, the Analysis of the Truths) that Sariputta said to the monks about the second noble Truth: 

And what, your reverences, is the ariyan truth of the arising of dukkha? Whatever craving is connected with again-becoming, accompanied by delight and attachment, finding delight in this and that, namely the craving for sense-pleasures, the craving for becoming, the craving for annihilation--- this, your reverences, is called the ariyan truth of the arising of dukkha. 

     In the Thera-gatha (57, Kutiviharin 2) the kamma which produces rebirth is symbolised by the building of a dwelling place, a hut. who still has desire to "build" will be reborn. A Thera did his studies in an old hut. He thought: "This old hut is now rotten; I ought to make another". So he turned his mind to new action (kamma). A spirit who was seeking salvation said to him:

This was an ancient hut, you say? To build
Another hut, a new one, is your wish?
O cast away the longing for a hut!
New hut will bring new pain, monk to you.

   i Why is lobha-mula-citta dangerous, even when it does not have the intensity to motivate bad deeds? 
  ii Visible objects what appears through the eyes, it is not a "thing". Can attachment to visible object arise during the eye-door process?
 iii Even the sotapanna who has realized that phenomena are impermanent and non-self has attachment to pleasant things. How is that possible?
  iv Is bhava-tanha, craving for becoming, always accompanied by wrong view?
   v Who has eradicated all forms of bhava-tanha? 
  vi Can the sotapanna (streamwinner) have vibhava-tanha, clinging to non-existence?
 vii Can the anagami (non-returner) have clinging to seeing?
viii Can the anagami have attachment to jhana?
  ix Is it possible to have attachment when we help someone else?
   x Can attachment to sati be a hindrance to the development of the eightfold Path? 
  xi Attachment to music is akusala. Monks are not allowed to apply themselves to music. Should even laypeople give up music in order to develop vipassana?
 xii Can attachment be the object of mindfulness?