Chanda (Buddhism)


Chanda is translated as "intention", "interest", or "desire to act". Chanda is identified within the Buddhist Abhidharma teachings as follows:

Theravada tradition

states:
Ajahn Jayasāro states:
Western presentations of Buddhist teachings have often led to the understanding that suffering arises because of desire, and therefore you shouldn’t desire anything. Whereas in fact the Buddha spoke of two kinds of desire: desire that arises from ignorance and delusion which is called taṇhā – craving – and desire that arises from wisdom and intelligence, which is called kusala-chanda, or dhamma-chanda, or most simply chanda. Chanda doesn’t mean this exclusively, but in this particular case I’m using chanda to mean wise and intelligent desire and motivation, and the Buddha stressed that this is absolutely fundamental to any progress on the Eightfold Path.... '
The Abhidhammattha-sangaha states:

Mahayana tradition

The Abhidharma-samuccaya states:
Alexander Berzin describes 'dun pa as the mental factor "to obtain any object, to achieve any goal, or to do something with the object or goal once obtained or achieved." Berzin explains:

Alternate translations