Five powers
| Thirty-seven factors of enlightenment |
| Sets of factors |
| 1-4: four foundations of mindfulness |
| 5-8: four right exertions |
| 9-12: four bases of miraculous power |
| 13-17: five spiritual faculties |
| 18-22: five powers |
| 23-29: seven aspects of enlightenment |
| 29-35: eightfold path |
| Related topics |
| TBD |
The five powers (Sanskrit, Pali: pañca bala), or five strengths are:
- Saddha-bala: power of faith
- Viriya-bala: power of energy
- Sati-bala: power of mindfulness
- Samadhi-bala: power of concentration
- Prajna-bala: power of wisdom
These powers are one of the seven sets of the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment. They are parallel facets of the five spiritual faculties.
Contents
Etymology
Pañca (Sanskrit, Pali) means "five."[1] Bala (Sanskrit, Pali) means "power," "strength," "force."[2]
Relations between the powers
Faith and Wisdom balance each other, as do Energy and Concentration.
Relation to the five faculties
In SN 48.43, the Buddha declares that the five spiritual faculties are the five powers and vice-versa. He uses the metaphor of a stream passing by a mid-stream island; the island creates two streams, but the streams can also be seen as one and the same.[3] The Pali commentaries remark that these five qualities are "faculties" when used to control their spheres of influence, and are "powers" when unshakeable by opposing forces.[4]
Notes
- ↑ See Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 387, entry for "Pañca," retrieved 2008-03-11 from "U. of Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:971.pali; and, Monier-Williams (1964), e.g., p. 579, entry "Pañcaka," retrieved 2008-03-11 from "U. of Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0578-paJcAGguri.pdf.
- ↑ See Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 482, entry for "Bala," retrieved 2008-03-11 from "U. of Chicago" at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.2:1:3245.pali; and, Monier-Williams (1964), p. 722, entry "Bala," retrieved 2008-03-11 from "U. of Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0722-barAsI.jpg.
- ↑ Bodhi (2000), pp. 1688-89.
- ↑ Bodhi (2000), p. 1511.
References
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2000). The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
- Monier-Williams, Monier (1899, 1964). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press. An on-line search engine for the MWD is available from the "U. of Cologne" at http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/.
- Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. An on-line search engine for the PED is available from "Chicago U." at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
External links
- The Way of Wisdom - The Five Spiritual Faculties, by Edward Conze
- The Five Spiritual Powers, Dharma talk by Sarah Doering
- Indriyas from Encyclopedia of Spiritual Knowledge
- The Secret of 5 Powers, Comic Book - Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh
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