Chanda (Buddhism)

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

One of the six occasional mental factors in the Theravada Abhidhamma; in this tradition, chanda is a factor that can have positive or negative result depending upon the mental factors that it is co-joined with.
One of the Ten mahā-bhūmika in Sarvastivada Abhidharma.
One of the five object-determining mental factors in the Mahayana Abhidharma; that is a factor that grasps the specification of the object.
One of the eight antidotes applied to overcome obstacles in Samatha meditation within the Mahayana tradition.

Definitions

Theravada tradition

Ajahn Sucitto 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

Aspiration
Desire to act
Desire as an eagerness to commit
Intention
Interest
Zeal