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In this website, it's stated that:

chanda: intention, desire, will. 1. As an ethically neutral psychological term, in the sense of 'intention', it is one of those general mental factors (cetasika, q.v. Tab. II) taught in the Abhidhamma, the moral quality of which is determined by the character of the volition (cetanā) associated therewith.

However, I've seen in a lot of discussions and sutta translations that the word cetana is usually translated as intention, which also happens to be the word chosen as the rendering for chanda.

At first glance, I kind of understand this situation, mainly because how intertwined and related these two phenomena (chanda and cetana) seem to be. Sadly, I'm almost a complete ignorant in regard to pali issues (and dhamma matters in general, by the way), and so, I cannot comprehend the nuances that may differenciate these two processes.

What is the difference between chanda and cetana?

How do these two relate to each other?

If they are related, which one comes first, and which after?

Is one a condition for the other?

Thanks a lot, in advance, for your time and patience.

Kind regards!

Brian Díaz Flores
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3 Answers3

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OP: What is the difference between chanda and cetana?

Chanda is the desire to act. E.g. if you stand from a seat you have to have the "intention" to do it, but can choose not to if you want

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A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma

Cetana is volition. This is what makes you commit a certain course of action to realise a goal or a wish. E.g. I a feeling hungry hence I will to get up and go to the fridge to get some food.

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A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma

OP: How do these two relate to each other?

Cetana is what pulls you in a certain direction in taking action. Chanda is the desire to do the act. E.g. (1) I am feeling hungry, but I am lazy to get up from bed. Here I have the intention but not the will to act. (2) I have money to buy a beggar or donate it to a beggar, but I choose to donate it. Here there is an intention to eat and donate but volition to donate.

Chanda is karmically neutral. Cetana is what decides the karma.

OP: If they are related, which one comes first, and which after?

They are present in the same mind moment if Chanda occurs. Cetana is a universal mental factor and is there in every mind moment. Chanda is an occasional factor hence there only in certain mind moments.

OP: Is one a condition for the other?

Cetana is the driving force which conditions chanda also.

Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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When a puthujjana man sees a beautiful girl/lady, a passion or love brews in his heart. This motivating 'passion' or 'love' can be compared to 'chanda'.

Similarly, when the inner urge to end suffering manifests or the liberation & joy of The Path is experienced, a similar 'passion' or 'love' manifests. These are 'chanda'.

'Intention' includes making a decision to do something. 'Intention' is more within the sphere of 'thought' where as 'chanda' is more within the sphere of 'emotion'.

I imagine 'chanda' occurs before 'intention'. For example, you feel unhappy about life and something within you moves you to search for a solution. The 'emotion' or 'will to live/will to be happy' within you that moves you is 'chanda'. From this chanda you act to search for a solution. This decision to act is 'intention'.

SN 51.20 is about the Four Iddhipada. Here, 'chandha' occurs 1st and 'intention' ('citta') occurs later.

These four bases of power, when developed & pursued, are of great fruit & great benefit. And how are the four bases of power developed & pursued so as to be of great fruit & great benefit?

  1. There is the case where a monk develops the base of power endowed with concentration founded on desire (chando; zeal; enthusiasm)...

  2. He develops the base of power endowed with concentration founded on persistence (vīriya; energy)...

  3. He develops the base of power endowed with concentration founded on intent (citta; mind; mental development) ...

  4. He develops the base of power endowed with concentration founded on discrimination (vīmaṃsā; inquiry; investigation)...

SN 51.20

Dhamma Dhatu
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Remember my answer about the attention/association process?

There I explained how our attention works under the hood as a cyclic association process with feedback. Remember, how the new associations either support or crowd out the current topic?

Cetana is exactly that in-the-moment "incline" in the cyclic association process, in some direction, that shifts it from one topic to another. It is the ability of the new topic to iteratively crowd out the old topic. In other words it is the relatively more attraction the new topic has over the old topic.

For example, if I open my pantry looking for plastic trash bags, and notice a bar of chocolate, then my thinking gets momentarily dominated by the memory of the sensation of chocolate dissolving in my mouth, and despite having an entirely different goal, I suddenly start getting pulled in the direction of taking a bite of the chocolate. That's Cetana. Subjectively I may think, "oh, why don't I take a little bite of that chocolate?" So in one sense you could say "I saw the chocolate and decided to have a piece". In the other sense, we can say it's the chocolate that has attracted you. It is not one or the other, these are just two different perspectives on the same thing.

This switch from trash bag to chocolate does not happen instantaneously. Instead, there's a shift from one to the other, over some short but not insignificant stretch of time. Perhaps a few seconds. You see the chocolate and feel the pull, and while your eyes are still searching for that trash bag, your hands are taking the chocolate bar and your mouth is biting it.

That shift or inclination in your attention is Cetana.

While Chanda is something entirely different. Chanda is when the child saw a puppet in the toy store, and having come home keeps asking mom to buy the puppet. And the mom says, "but what are you gonna do with it, after a day you will just throw it in the box". And the child says, "no I will do all kinds of things with it." -- "But what things?!" asks mom. -- "I don't know" - says the child, "but I want it".

This vague idea that "when I have it, it will be good" is Chanda.

So Cetana is just an ever present normal regular part of how our mind works moment by moment. Our attention always shifts, there's always an incline. While Chanda is a distinct type of ideation, it is thinking about something and endowing it with good qualities, in your imagination.

Perhaps we could translate Cetana as "impulse" and Chanda as "wishful thinking".

Andriy Volkov
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  • @AndreiVolkov Thanks again! I re-read the other answer you wrote a while ago, and it made even more sense now with this current question in mind. I really appreciate your help. I have one question, though: is chanda always a kind of "wishful thinking"? Because, based on the other excellent answers, it seems the Buddha used chanda to indicate a neutral (ethically/kammically speaking) kind of desire, with tanha being like a kind of kammically charged chanda. Although, I may be misunderstanding something. – Brian Díaz Flores Sep 27 '19 at 15:57
  • @AndreiVolkov I have another question: in the example about the chocolate bar, would it be wrong to say that there was an implicit and subconscious chanda before the arising of the intention to take the bar? Isn't every action driven by some implicit desire to take some specific course of action to achieve some specific goal? Kind regards! – Brian Díaz Flores Sep 27 '19 at 16:02
  • when I say "wishful thinking" I do not mean it in a negative way. It's just thinking about something while in your thoughts endowing it with good, desirable qualities. It may be wishful thinking about helping humanity, or wishful thinking about getting enlightened - so in this case it is "good" wishful thinking, but it is wishful thinking nevertheless, because we're imagining something and thinking "wouldn't it be nice if I could XYZ".
    • – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 16:15
  • No, chanda by definition only refers to active manifested thinking. Implicit chanda is simply a samskara, "potential tendency".
    • – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 16:16
  • Thanks! About the first question: how do we call the mental process which allows an arahant to keep planing and doing things? If an arahant thinks "I'll meditate under that tree, because its shadow offers a fresh spot for sitting for a long time", isn't a kind of chanda what's creating that explicit thought? – Brian Díaz Flores Sep 27 '19 at 16:24
  • Arahant's action is determined by "samma-sankappo" (Samyak-sankalpa), which can be described as "Doing X and not doing Y would be going in the right direction not merely for myself but for everyone; it would bring many good consequences and few bad consequences, therefore I am resolved on doing X and not doing Y despite the obstacles." – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 16:43
  • Before someone is an arahant they may have Chanda like "Wouldn't it be great to become an arahant!" which is pretty good but still a kind of wishful thinking, and so is very different from arahant's strict "Do what's beneficial, not what seems attractive." – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 16:45
  • So, what do you think about what SSSD said about chanda being karmically neutral? – Brian Díaz Flores Sep 27 '19 at 16:54
  • In Theravada they say that thinking about something is karmically neutral and only when you act is when it becomes karma. In Mahayana, we say that thinking is a precursor to action, so for us, indulging in wishful thinking about e.g. sexual contact with a certain person already shifts our karmic potential in some direction. I think the word chanda by itself is a neutral (unqualified) term, but each particular instance of chanda is rarely neutral. – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 19:03
  • In this translation "kamma" is translated "deeds" (or "action") -- so acting is literally kamma. And, it says, "It is intention that I call deeds | For after making a choice one acts", where intention translates cetana. chanda is mentioned in that suta too, but only once. Maybe the common ground is to do with choice, whether that's choosing to think about something (or at least, not the rejecting the thought), or choosing to act. – ChrisW Sep 27 '19 at 21:34
  • Or maybe we could translate it, "it is inclination that I call karma. Having inclined, one performs a deed"? – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 21:42
  • Or perhaps, "It is inclination-appropriated-as-I, (cetanaham) is what's called karma."? That would make sense. – Andriy Volkov Sep 27 '19 at 21:54
  • About the difference in or the relation between the two definitions, though -- e.g. is it momentary/impulsive inclination (cetana) which causes long-lived/ideation/keeps-asking-mum desire (chanda) -- or, vice versa, is it habitual/background desire which causes specific/present inclination? Is chanda like "general motiive" whereas cetana is motive plus "specific opportunity" -- and there's no cetana without chanda? – ChrisW Sep 28 '19 at 09:13
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    I think they are largely independent from one another. Cetana happens for any number of reasons, e.g. out of surprise or out of habit etc. I don't see Chanda as background motive, I see it as a type of imagination. – Andriy Volkov Sep 28 '19 at 12:47
  • @AndreiVolkov Thanks for all this clarification. I twould've thought that chanda refered to desire in general, and that a desire was considered tanha when its presupositions were ignorant and when its root were unwholesome. In this sense, I thought that even arahants had the capacity for desiring, but such desire would no longer be an ignorant, unwholesome one. Kind regards! – Brian Díaz Flores Sep 30 '19 at 02:55