Bhava

Meaning

The tenth link of dependent origination - a difficult term standing in the chain between clinging and birth. It is often rendered as “existence” or “becoming.”

Between contractions and delivery

The mechanics of the chain and a metaphor from AN 3.76 help to grasp bhava.

Clinging (upādāna) - the active seizing of objects, views, practices and ideas about oneself - does not pass without consequence. The second meaning of upādāna in Pali is fuel, the sustenance of a fire. Clinging thus feeds the process out of which a new birth may arise.

In AN 3.76 the Buddha is asked under what conditions a new bhava is produced. He answers with an agricultural metaphor:

• kamma is the field: intentional actions that create the range of possibilities for experience and birth
• consciousness is the seed: where passion, delight and craving are present, consciousness becomes established and grows
• craving is the moisture, without which consciousness cannot become established and grow

Under these conditions a new becoming is produced in the future. Clinging is built into the interaction of kamma, consciousness and craving: it directs intentions (cetanā) and deeds (kamma), which in turn condition the establishment and growth of consciousness.

Bhava can therefore be defined as the process of forming a new mode of existence once it has gathered momentum - the direction in which the next birth is ripening.

Becoming here and now

There is another view, from Thanissaro Bhikkhu: the same mechanism is visible directly in the workings of the mind as the process of becoming some identity. Becoming happens every time a new identity, and a world to match it, assembles around a desire.

• someone wants recognition - and an “unrecognised genius” takes shape inside, living among people who underestimate him
• someone wants to win an argument - and “the one who is right” appears, along with a world populated by mistaken opponents

Dozens of such micro-becomings can arise in a day. On this reading, small psychological becomings and the large becoming that leads to a new birth are the same mechanism at different scales.

Kinds of bhava

The canon distinguishes three:

• kāma-bhava - sensual existence
• rūpa-bhava - existence in the realm of form
• arūpa-bhava - formless existence

The latter two are linked to the levels of rebirth corresponding to deep meditative attainments.

The end of becoming

Bhava ceases with the cessation of clinging, and with it birth ceases too. It is no accident that the arahant’s formula of knowledge states: birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no further coming into such a state.

In practice

One of the places where becoming is especially visible is the thought “once I have… then I will.” Once I get the position, move, meet the right person, become enlightened - then I will finally be who I am meant to be. A future character, and a world for it to inhabit, begins to assemble around the desire.

MN 131 offers the remedy: do not run after the past, do not reach for the future that has not yet come, clearly discern what is arising now, and do not turn form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness into “I” and “mine.”