Tyler Alterman tweet
Have u watched a friend get into Buddhism & then become passive, withdrawn, and boring? I think Western Buddhism is turning many of us into NPCs 😬 I suspect this is because of (a) a critical mistranslation and (b) failure to import a very important concept: chanda
Firstly, we messed up big in the 19th century by mistranslating one of the Noble Truths as “Desire is the root of all suffering.” Wrong! This mistranslation NPCifies ppl. They start cutting off all forms of desire & then there’s no motivation to do stuff
Tanha – the key word here in Buddhist scripture – apparently does not translate to desire. It best translates to “craving” or “thirst”
Secondly – and I think this is so important! – there is a concept of “wholesome desire”: kusala chanda. (I’ll call this chanda for short, even though chanda on its own just means something like zeal or intention.) Chanda is a form of desire that does not involve clinging and subsequently suffering. Why is this never discussed??? I barely find any mention of chanda amongst you tpot Buddhist types
What happens if you release tanha (craving) but don’t transition to chanda (zeal), the cleaner fuel? You mostly stop living. It’s like taking medicine for a disease, going “yay, I’m cured!” when the symptoms are gone, and then just standing there forever. Granted, this is what some monks do, but you’re not a monk, bro, you’re here on twitter
Now the key part: How do you tell the difference between tanha (which leads to suffering) and chanda (which can propel you healthily through life)?
I believe you can feel the difference through simple phenomenological markers. I can’t find any basis in the suttas for this, so now I’m just talking about my own experience, which is this:
- Tanha (craving): tightness, restlessness, narrowness
- Chanda (zeal): brightness, steadiness, spaciousness
Chanda for me feels like a sort of upward angelic current through my bodymind. It feels impersonal, as if I’m “channeling” something
According to a meditation teacher I spoke to (heavily paraphrased), tanha moves you toward a desire through control. With chanda, however, a desire arises, and then you surrender to “life,” which can guide you to the desire by “noticing synchronicities”
I’ve been making a practice of replacing tanha with chanda by (1) noticing whether my experience right now has qualities of tightness, narrowness, micromanagement. (2) If so, I relax that tanha, and (3) listen for chanda
This switch to cleaner motivation is having very immediate benefits. Try it!
Disclaimer: I AM NOT A BUDDHIST TEACHER OR SCHOLAR, I’M JUST A GUY INFORMALLY RESEARCHING HOW TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE