Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are three cravings — for sensual pleasures, for existence, and for nonexistence — and beings bound by them are “yoked by Māra’s yoke,” continuing to transmigrate, while those who have given up all three “have truly crossed over” and reached the ending of the defilements.
The second noble truth, in miniature
This exact threefold division — craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for nonexistence — is the standard definition of taṇhā given as the second noble truth, the origin of suffering, in the canon’s most famous teaching on the subject. Seeing it appear here, stripped of any narrative context, is a reminder that Iti 58 is not offering a minor or secondary observation about craving; it is restating, in the Itivuttaka’s characteristically compressed form, one of the most load-bearing doctrinal formulas in the entire tradition.
Craving for nonexistence
The first two cravings are intuitive: wanting pleasure, wanting to continue existing. The third, craving for nonexistence, is easy to misread as simple pessimism or a wish for annihilation, but in context it names a specific, subtle craving — the wish, arising precisely because existence is painful, that this self simply stop, rather than the wish to see existence and its causes clearly and thereby be free of them. Craving for nonexistence is still craving; it still keeps the wheel turning, just aimed in the opposite direction from craving for existence.
Yoked, then crossed over
The verse’s two stanzas are built as a clean contrast. The first describes beings “bound by craving,” their minds “full of desire for rebirth in this or that state,” “yoked by Māra’s yoke,” finding “no sanctuary,” continuing to transmigrate through “ongoing birth and death.” The second describes exactly the opposite condition for those who have “given up craving” and are “rid of craving for rebirth in this or that state”: they have “truly crossed over,” having “reached the ending of defilements.” The verse does not describe a partial or gradual softening of craving; it presents only two conditions, bound or crossed over, with nothing in between named.
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, there are these three cravings. What three? Craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and craving for nonexistence. These are the three cravings.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3“Bound by craving, minds full of desire
for rebirth in this or that state,
yoked by Māra’s yoke, these people
find no sanctuary from the yoke.
Sentient beings continue to transmigrate,
with ongoing birth and death.
§4Those who have given up craving,
rid of craving for rebirth in this or that state,
they in this world have truly crossed over,
having reached the ending of defilements.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.