Agony and Ecstasy

15
The urge of the Senses
Desire for sense-satisfaction (kāmacchanda) is found only in the
world of sense (kāma-loka). An escape is sought in the delights
of form (rūpa) and of the abstract (arūpa) through substitution and
sublimation. But, before following those flights of thought, one must
understand the nature of this urge, its constitution, association, aim
and purpose.
It is called an urge (chanda) which is stronger than a wish or
a desire. It is an impelling force, a driving force, which does not
allow the mind to rest, and thus it is the most difficult state to
understand or to overcome, even though, as carnal desire, it is also
the grossest of all passions. It will function through any of the senses,
and as greed or lust it is found as craving for sensual indulgence
(kāma-taṇhā), that is, craving for the pleasures of the five bodily
senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. It is thus distinct
from craving for existence or rebirth (bhava-taṇhā) and from craving
for non-existence (vibhava-taṇhā), the escapism of annihilation of
responsibility.
It is a mental factor (cetasikā), that is, a concomitant, a coefficient,
mutually connected with others, “having a common origin, a
common cessation, a common basis and a common object of sense”
(Kvu. vii. 2); not to be understood as something joined to thought,
because it has no independent existence. Mental factors are the
contents of thought, they constitute thought and are co-products
of the interaction of the sense-objects and the sense-organs. Mental
factors are the elements of the complex (saṅkhāra) of thought.
Thus there is no thought without mental factors, and there are no
mental factors separate from thought. Some are wholesome in their
make-up and skilful in their activity, while others are not. Some will
combine easily with others, but not at all with their opposites. In
those combinations or complexes (saṅkhāra) they form the various
types of thought.