210: Chanda (Desire, Wanting)

 This talk explores the true meaning of chanda — not as craving, but as the neutral, wholesome intention to act. Learn how understanding and observing this “wanting consciousness” in daily life can lead from desire to wisdom. 

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Sayar Myat: 0:00

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa ,Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa , Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa. Theravada Buddhism series, Dhamma talk number thirty-three. Chanda Desire Wanting. Most people misunderstood the meaning of the Pali word Chanda. During translation it lost its essence. Translated words are desire, wanting, wishing. These words implies having craving and greed. We have heard the word Kāmacchanda, sense desire. Often in the five hindrances, right at the beginning of our practice, we talk about the five hindrances. The greed of wanting one of the six pleasurable senses. That is Kāmacchanda. And also desire associated with ill will. Vyāpāda chanda. Both are unwholesome akusala. Kāmacchanda is akusala. Vyāpāda chanda is akusala. And here delightful six senses and ill will are unwholesome qualifiers of chanda. The word Dhamma chanda is a desire or wanting or wishing to have the Buddha Dhamma. And that is a wholesome state. Wholesome chanda. Dhamma chanda is a wholesome chanda. So these examples indicate that Chanda is neutral and is adaptable to wholesome or unwholesome states. When it associates with wholesome state, it becomes wholesome chanda. When it associates with unwholesome states, it becomes unwholesome chanda. By itself, it is neutral. Chanda is a mental factor. Or it's also called mental associates. It arises and disappears together with consciousness. Mental associates, dictate the action of consciousness. Consciousness by itself is simply knowing the object. Knowing the existence, the presence of the object. Nothing more, nothing less. But it's the mental factor that they take the action of the consciousness. Chanda characteristic is wanting to do something. Or you can say chanda urges consciousness to do something. In Burmese it is called chin seik. Chin means wanting, seik means consciousness, chin seik, wanting consciousness. That what Burmese named that chandha consciousness. A consciousness with an extended hand of wanting to do or to act. We can say a desire to do something, or we can say intending to do something under a certain situation, certain condition. That is wanting consciousness. So the key point is Chanda is neutral, it becomes wholesome or unwholesome based on the nature of a condition or situation. That's the characteristics. How to know what Chanda is in theory. Consciousness with Chanda is always searching for something. But consciousness without Chanda doesn't look for something. Chanda always wants an object or a thing that is suitable for a condition. So we can call this mental factor Chanda. Activity director of consciousness. Activity director of consciousness. Let's look at a few examples to understand that. That's a condition. You are hungry, you are in a state, you're in a condition. And as soon as you become hungry, what happened? Wanting to eat. That desire that wanting to eat is chanda. But it is prompt by the hunger. Only when you want to eat you go and look for the food, you open the fridge. That looking for food is the function of chanda. Looking for something is the function of chandak. Let's try another example to understand. Very late at night you become sleepy. This feeling sleepy is a condition. Because you stay up very late at night. That's a condition. And once you become feeling sleepy, wanting to go to bed, desire to go to bed due to sleepiness arises. That wanting to go to bed, desire to go to bed is chanda. Because of that, looking for a bed to sleep in. That is the function of chanda. This will give you a little better picture with an example. A condition designed by one of the six senses. Designed by one of the six sense objects. Is the proximate cause for Chanda to arise. Without these six sense objects, Chanda cannot arise. When the objects are there, Chanda arises. So these are the nature, we are discussing the nature of different angles approaching Chanda to understand it from a theoretical point of view. Let's go on a practical side and see how it is. To fully understand Chanda, one must practice mindfulness insight. Satipattana Vipassana Meditation. Then one will directly experience its characteristics, its functions, and its proximate cause. You must practice mindfulness insight. So let's take a part of a practice. Let's say you are in a retreat. You do walking meditation, sitting meditation, daily activities meditation. Daily activity meditation is a good point to start. Especially eating. Eating is one of the daily activities. At a retreat, that is an excellent place to observe and understand chanda. So let's pick that up. Now it's lunchtime. You're about to eat. Collect the food on the plate. A plate sit in front of you at the eating table. There's the plate sitting in front of you with food. So that is a condition that is the proximate cause of chanda, a plate with food sitting in front of you at lunchtime on the table. So it is a setting, a situation, a condition. Then as you are in a mindful mode, mindfulness meditation mode, what do you do? You simply observed. You look at the plate and the food in front of you, and you note it, you label it, seeing, seeing. That's it. Not the plate, not the food, not the chicken, not the rice, not the vegetables. Simply seeing, seeing. That's what you do. And after you observe seeing, seeing, of course, the condition is prompting you to eat. So wanting to eat, wanting to start eating arises. Wanting to start eating arises. In other words, intention to eat arises. Intention. So what do we do as you are in a mindful mode? One observe the intention. Intention, intention. Actually, that intention, wanting to eat the food is chanda. But in the books, chanda is not translated as intention. But in practice, that intention is chanda. Wanting to eat. That's why Burmese translation. Wanting consciousness. Wanting to do this, wanting to do that, wanting to eat, wanting to drink, wanting, wanting, wanting. Observe. How do we observe? Intention, intention, or intending, intending. The moment you have intention to eat, you observe and you note as intending. That is chanda. You are observing chanda. You are experiencing chanda directly. Due to that intention. Intention to eat. What? You have to eat with a spoon. So now what happened? So you start looking for a spoon. It may be beside your plate, it may be in the middle of the table in a cup, but you start looking for a spoon to eat with. And that looking for a spoon is the function of Chanda. Wanting to eat is Chanda. And looking for a spoon to eat with is the function, the job of Chanda. So let's strip this looking for a spoon and see. When you look for a spoon, do you have unwholesome desire? The answer is no. When you're looking for a spoon, do you have a wholesome desire? The answer is no. It is simply doing a job, neither with the unwholesome or wholesome compartment. That's why when Chanda is not associated with wholesome or unwholesome condition, it is simply neutral. And if a yogi is mindful of the eating process, the eating process that yogi will experience and know or understand the condition, the food, the plate, tables, anything that is related to that. Eating process. That's a condition. The yogi will know the condition. People around walking back and forth, not too slide, and so on and so on. Those are the condition. The food in front of you is a condition, immediate condition, approximate condition. You will know the condition and also the arising of desire or wanting to eat or arising of desire or wanting for an object that is required for that situation or condition. In this case, you need spoons or maybe a fork and a knife, a chopstick. Automatically, arising of a desire for wanting, a tool arises. But that must be suitable to the condition. And then automatically one starts looking for the spoon. And if you are mindful, you will see all these things clearly. You will experience each and every one of them, and you will know them in real time. Moment to moment, you will know them. All that you need is to be is mindful of the eating process. You know what chanda is, what its function is, what its approximate causes. Eating is in the field of flavor and taste sensitivity or tongue sensitivity. Eating the food, which is the flavor. You can't really taste the vegetable or a chicken or a rice. You taste the flavor. So it is the flavor and the taste back on your tongue, taste it. That's called tongue sensitivity. So it eating is in that field, what we have just discussed. But we are endowed with six senses. So seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking. These are the six views of the mind and matter. Physicality and mentality. Being mindful will experience the specific characteristics of mind and matter. They are constant appearance and disappearance, moment to moment. And that is Vipassana insight. Knowing as it is, experiencing as it is, without any intermediary, without any veil in between. That is Vipassana insight. Specific characteristics and the appearance and disappearance of those. The objects appear from nowhere. It is the condition that brings it the object, but it doesn't pre-exist. The objects appear from nowhere and disappear into the thin air. And then these collective experiences will lead you to understand the impermanence and nature, suffering, dukkha, and non-self, and not that the true nature of mind and matter, what we call self or soul. One after the other, cause and effect, cause and effect will lead you to that stage. So that is how theoretical side brings you out into the practical side and what you come to know or understand directly and experientially. But let's go back to that chanda. You have a desire. After that, you look for something. After you look for something or object, looking for something is the function. It releases the mind to engage the object. After you look for something, you found it,. Basically, you engage the object. Basically, you see, you know, you pick it up, the spoon. You engage the object. And that is called Adhimokkha. In Pali, you are engaging directly with the object. You release your mind onto the object, into the object. That's called Adhimokkha. It has the power to make unwavering decisions. Because now you really know the object. Such mentality or such mind is free of doubt. You see, you know, you touch, you feel. How hard, how cold, how it's shaped. You exactly know as it is. So you have no doubt. It is free of doubt. Adhimokkha is free of doubt. Because it has penetrated into the objects true nature. So Adhimokkha is releasing the mind onto the object, knowing the object as it is, and you have the sharp and clear decision with regard to it without any doubt. So after Chanda, that Adhimokkha, decision making process arises. And once you have made the decision, what do you do? You do something after with your decision. An effort follows decision making. Whatever comes, you are ready and willing to face it. This effort exerts, it supports, and it upholds all our Other mental associates that are together with it, so that these mental associates can do their job efficiently. So that's what the effort is. That is just a one moment by moment, by moment by moment. If one is mindful, and establish constant and powerful mindfulness and concentration, leading to wisdom. It all starts with a desire, chanda, wanting to do. If you are not mindful, it can take into wholesome or unwholesome fields. If you are mindful, it'll take you to the field of wisdom. May all of you be able to practice mindfulness insight meditation. Know your intentions at every moment and then finally attain wisdom as soon as possible. Thank you very much.