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BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #22 (Winter 1992-93)
THE FIVE SPIRITUAL FACULTIES
by Bhikkhu Bodhi
The practice of the Buddha's teaching is most commonly depicted by
the image of a journey, the eight factors of the Noble Eightfold
Path constituting the royal roadway along which the disciple must
travel. The Buddhist scriptures, however, illustrate the quest for
liberation in a variety of other ways, each of which throws a
different spotlight on the nature of the practice. Although the
alternative formulations inevitably draw upon the same basic set of
mental factors as those that enter into the eightfold path, they
structure these factors around a different "root metaphor" -- an
image which evokes its own particular range of associations and
highlights different aspects of the endeavor to reach the cessation
of suffering.
One of the groups of factors given special prominence in the Suttas
included by the Buddha among the thirty-seven requisites of
enlightenment is the five spiritual faculties: the faculties of
faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom. The term
//indriya//, faculties, applied to this group as a whole is derived
from the name of the ancient Vedic god Indra, ruler of the devas,
and the term accordingly suggests the divine-like quality of control
and domination. The five faculties are so designated because they
exercise control in their own specific compartments of the spiritual
life. As the god Indra vanquished the demons and attained supremacy
among the gods, so each of the five faculties is called upon to
subdue a particular mental disability and to marshal the
corresponding potency of mind towards the breakthrough to final
enlightenment.
The notion of faculty is partly akin to the ancient Greek conception
of the virtues. Like the virtues, the faculties are active powers
which coordinate and canalize our natural energies, directing them
towards the achievement of an inward harmony and balance essential
to our true happiness and peace. Since the faculties are to serve as
agents of inward control, this implies that apart from their
restraining influence our nature is not under our own control. Left
to itself without the guidance of a superior source of instruction,
the mind is a prey to forces that swell up from within itself, dark
forces which hold us in subjection and prevent us from attaining our
own highest welfare and genuine good. These forces are the
defilements (//kilesa//). As long as we live and act under their
dominion we are not our own masters but passive pawns, driven by our
blind desires into courses of conduct that promise fulfillment but
in the end lead only to misery and bondage. True freedom necessarily
involves the attainment of inner autonomy, the strength to withstand
the pushes and pulls of our appetites, and this is accomplished
precisely by the development of the five spiritual faculties.
The qualities that exercise the function of faculties are of humble
origin, appearing initially in mundane roles in the course of our
everyday lives. In these humble guises they manifest as trustful
confidence in higher values, as vigorous effort towards the good, as
attentive awareness, as focused concentration, and as intelligent
understanding. The Buddha's teaching does not implant these
dispositions into the mind from scratch but harnesses those
pre-existent capacities of our nature towards a supramundane goal --
towards the realization of the Unconditioned -- thereby conferring
upon them a transcendental significance. By assigning them a task
that reveals their immense potential, and by guiding them along a
track that can bring that potential to fulfillment, the Dhamma
transforms these commonplace mental factors into spiritual
faculties, mighty instruments in the quest for liberation that can
fathom the profoundest laws of existence and unlock the doors to the
Deathless.
In the practice of the Dhamma each of these faculties has
simultaneously to perform its own specific function and to harmonize
with the other faculties to establish the balance needed for clear
comprehension. The five come to fullest maturity in the
contemplative development of insight, the direct road to awakening.
In this process the faculty of faith provides the element of
inspiration and aspiration which steers the mind away from the
quagmire of doubt and settles it with serene trust in the Triple Gem
as the supreme basis of deliverance. The faculty of energy kindles
the fire of sustained endeavor that burns up obstructions and brings
to maturity the factors that ripen in awakening. The faculty of
mindfulness contributes clear awareness, the antidote to
carelessness and the prerequisite of penetration. The faculty of
concentration holds the beam of attention steadily focused on the
rise and fall of bodily and mental events, calm and composed. And
the faculty of wisdom, which the Buddha calls the crowning virtue
among all the requisites of enlightenment, drives away the darkness
of ignorance and lights up the true characteristics of phenomena.
Just as much as the five faculties, considered individually, each
perform their own unique tasks in their respective domains, as a
group they accomplish the collective task of establishing inner
balance and harmony. To achieve this balanced striving the faculties
are divided into two pairs in each of which each member must counter
the undesirable tendency inherent in the other, thus enabling it to
actualize its fullest potential. The faculties of faith and wisdom
form one pair, aimed at balancing the capacities for devotion and
comprehension; the faculties of energy and concentration form a
second pair aimed at balancing the capacities for active exertion
and calm recollection. Above the complementary pairs stands the
faculty of mindfulness, which protects the mind from extremes and
ensures that the members of each pair hold one another in a mutually
restraining, mutually enriching tension.
Born of humble origins in everyday functions of the mind, through
the Dhamma the five faculties acquire a transcendent destiny. When
they are developed and regularly cultivated, says the Master, "they
lead to the Deathless, are bound for the Deathless, culminate in the
Deathless."
* * * * * * * *