The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)

by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words

This page relates ‘Psychic Power of Desire (Chandiddhipada or Chanda)’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.

3.2.1. Psychic Power of Desire (Chandiddhipāda or Chanda)

< Previous

Next >

[Full title: The Fourfold Psychic Power (cattāro iddhipāda)—(1): The Psychic Power of Desire (Chandiddhipāda or Chanda)]

The Chandiddhipāda is explained in the Chanda Sutta under the following:

“Bhikkhus, if a monk gains concentration, gains one-pointedness of mind, relying on desire (chanda), this is called concentration due to desire (chanda-samādhi).

He brings for the desire (chanda) for the non-arising of unarisen evil unwholesome states. He makes an effort, rouses energy, applies his mind and strives;

He brings for the desire (chanda) for the abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states. He makes an effort, rouses energy, applies his mind and strives;

He brings for the desire (chanda) for the arising of unarisen wholesome states. He makes an effort, rouses energy, applies his mind and strives;

He brings for the desire (chanda) for the maintaining of arisen wholesome states. He makes an effort, rouses energy, applies his mind and strives—there are called the forces of exertion (padhānasaṅkhāra).

Thus, there are this desire and the concentration due to desire and these forces of exertion—this, bhikkhu, is called the psychic powers accomplished in concentration due to the desire and these forces of exertion (these forces and abandoning).^[1]

By chanda is meant desire to obtain, desire to attain, desire to reach, desire to fulfill, desire to accomplish. The desire indicated here is extreme or excessive desire. There is nothing within or without one’s personality that can obstruct that desire. It is the kind of desire that evokes the thought, “If I do not attain this accomplishment in this life, I shall not rest content. It is better that I die rather than that I shall not attain it.”

It is the kind of desire nurtured by King Dhammasoṇḍa^[2] of Benares during the time of the Kassapa Buddha,^[3] when the king said to himself, “What use is there in my being king of Benares if I do not get the opportunity of hearing a discourse of the Kassapa Buddha?” The king, therefore, relinquished his throne and went out in search of one who could repeat to him a discourse of the Kassapa Buddha, no matter that the discourse consisted of a short stanza only.

Such desire is appeased if it is fulfilled, as in the case of King Bimbisāra,^[4] Visākhā, and Anāthapiṇḍika.^[5] It is only when there are faint indications that the desire can be attained but is not fulfilled, that the mind becomes troubled, and thoughts arise that it is better to die than live without attaining the desire.

Examples of such desire existed also in King Temiya,^[6] King Hatthipāla,^[7] and kings, nobles, and rich men in the time of the Buddha who discarded their palaces, retinues and other luxuries to live the lives of bhikkhus in the Buddha-sāsana.