“Iddhiphāda which can be translated as the four

The teachings of Ajahn Suchart

6 October 2024

“Iddhiphāda which can be translated as the four steps to success.”

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“Let me start tonight with the four Dhamma qualities that are necessary or essential for accomplishing whatever you want to do. In Pāli it is called the four iddhiphāda, which can be translated as the four steps to success. 

The first is called chanda.
The second is viriya.
The third is citta.
The fourth is vimaṁsā. 

These are the four Dhamma qualities that one needs to have if one wants to accomplish or to be successful in any endeavor.

The first one, chanda, means you have to like what you do.

If you want to be successful in meditation, you have to like to meditate. In order for you to like to meditate, you must know the result or the benefit that you will gain from your meditation practice.

In order to be able to see the benefit, you need to listen to someone who has already benefited from the practice of meditation like the Lord Buddha and his Noble Disciples. So when you listen to Dhamma talks, you are learning the benefits of meditation practice. Once you have learned that you can gain happiness through peace of mind, you can eliminate all your mental suffering, such as stress, anxiety, worry and fear. Then if you want this benefit, you will like to meditate.

Once you like to meditate, then the second quality will follow. Viriya means energy or effort. When you like to do something, you will naturally have the energy to do it and find it easy to do. If you don’t like to do it, you will find that you have no energy, no desire.

So when you like what you want to do, you will put in your effort. You will work hard to accomplish what you have set out to do.

To set this up, you need to listen to people who have the experience in meditation practice; then after you have learned the benefits that you can acquire from meditation practice and you have also learned how to meditate, you will like to meditate. When you like to meditate, you will make time and put in the effort to meditate. You will put off other things because in life you only have so much time to do so many things. So in order to have the time and effort to meditate, you might have to give up other things.

Like tonight you had to give up some other things that you normally do, maybe watching television, or going out to some entertainment venue, or some other activities that you might want to do. You were willing to sacrifice, to give up those activities, so you could go to the temple and meditate. So if you have chanda, liking what you do, then you will have viriya, energy/effort.

And then you will also have the third quality, which is citta.

Citta means to devote most of your time and effort to the meditation practice because you want to experience the benefit that you can get from your meditation practice. Just imagine if you are successful, your mind will be peaceful and calm, and happy. This kind of happiness is better than any kind of happiness that you have ever experienced before.

Even if you become rich and famous, the happiness that you get from being rich or being famous cannot compare to the happiness that you gain from your meditation practice.

You have to experience the result of your practice and you will have no doubt. Right now you are just listening; you have not yet experienced the full result, so you might not yet see the benefit. But at least you have heard about it.

Now in order for you to make it happen, you have to have viriya, you have to put in your time and effort. 

You have to have citta. You have to devote your entire life to the meditation practice, only wanting to meditate. This is what is meant by citta: your mind is focused only on this thing that you want to do. You will not want to go and do other things.

If your friends call you up and ask you to go out, maybe to go out to play golf or tennis, or go to a theater, to a movie, sight-seeing or shopping, you will not accept the invitation.

You would rather spend that time meditating. This is the essence of citta. Your mind is solely focused on the thing that you want to do and accomplish in order to receive the benefit.

And the fourth quality is your thoughts. You will use your thoughts to think analytically.

This is the meaning of vimaṁsā, thinking analytically, meaning you have to analyze to see how your practice is going, whether you are moving forward or not. You have to analyze to find out what causes your practice to move forward and what causes your practice not to move forward, as well as what causes your practice to fall behind. These are the things that you have to analyze so that you can eliminate the things that stop you from going forward, and develop the things that will push you forward.”

Dhamma in English, Dec 2, 2014.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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