Session 029: Five Spiritual Faculties
The Five Spiritual Faculties: To Support Our Path To Enlightenment
Dhamma Talk + Guided Meditation Session 029: July 22nd, 2020, by Sophia Ojha Ensslin and Cristof Ensslin
Banner Photo by Mick Haupt
Introduction
“You are already the richest person on Earth”, says Thich Nhat Hanh. He continues, “Don’t look outside for your happiness. Let go of the idea that you don’t have it. It’s available within you.” He writes that the Buddha would say, “I cannot underestimate you. You are a future Buddha.” He says, “there is no one who does not have the capacity to become a Buddha, or enlightened...With the right conditions the seed of Buddha nature will grow. We each have the Buddha nature.
So you are already the richest person on Earth, because the treasure that you are seeking, the happiness you are looking for is already within you. Imagine you have a sunflower seed inside your palm. This seed is already within you. Each one of us has that seed. Buddha mean to be awakened to the reality as it is. That seed of Buddhahood is already within you. And we need to water the seeds of Buddha nature.One way to water the seeds of Buddha nature within is to develop the five spiritual faculties.
Dhamma Talk by Sophia
Meditation Guided by Sophia
Handout
This week we have prepared a 5-page handout for you. It is posted left/below as blog content. Plus, you can download it as PDF by clicking on the following button:
The Five Spiritual Faculties
Ayya Khema, describes “The five spiritual faculties are compared to a team of horses, where there is one lead horse and two pairs. The lead horse can walk as fast or slow as it wishes, but the two pairs need to be in harmony.” So what are these five spiritual faculties?
1. The first one is Mindfulness.
The lead horse is mindfulness. Ayya Khema describes mindfulness as being attentive to oneself, watching over oneself, knowing exactly what one is doing, feeling, thinking. So in essence we are becoming deeply familiar with ourselves. When we know, we ar able to change. This is mindfulness in daily life because that’s where we are laying the foundations for our meditation and then in meditation we are laying the foundation for our daily life. Both are deeply intertwined and we can see that. When our mind is diffused, scattered during the day, the meditation starts of very scattered. If you have been practicing mindfulness in your day, the meditation tends to follow suit. Ayya Khema says, that our most helpful companion in daily life - mindfulness. With it we are less prone to worry about the future and regret the past. That’s because mindfulness is directed towards the present and this way we learn to live in the here and now.2. and 3. Faith & Wisdom: Other words for heart and mind. Wisdom is a mind quality and faith is a hearth quality and the two have to be balanced. If we have too much faith - devotion without interrogation, we can easily become fanatical and think only this path is correct. When we have wisdom but not faith, then we are good at analyzing. Wisdom is another word for insight but it also denotes that we are good at logical thinking. When we do too much of that, without the heart quality, then we can have a lot of sceptical doubt. Faith and confidence is the antidote to skeptical doubt. She says that t the real wisdom is the understood experience. Wisdom arises out of an understanding of what goes on within us. “The whole of the universe lies within this fathom long body” In order to gain wisdom, we do need some knowledge. And we mustn’t confuse knowledge with wisdom. Some knowledge is helpful, too much knowledge can be a drawback.
An example of wisdom:
Your meditation practice and what family and friends think of it. The current of our own impulses and other people’s views, it’s easier because we are carried in that current, but where do we end up - in the mud flats where the river joins the ocean. We have to go against society in order to make steps on the path - upstream.
Another example of wisdom:
Understanding impermanence. Impermanence of every thought, every emotion, this body, of everything that exists. And stop trying to make it permanent. That’s our delusion that we try to make the impermanent permanent. We mixup things thinking happiness is suffering and suffering is happiness. For example, we may have aversion to sitting down to meditation. Maybe the last session was painful and so we have aversion. But it actually brings us the greatest joy. Understanding that meditation helps us is wisdom.
Some other examples of wisdom that she shares:When we remember the three characteristics of life( impermanence, substancelessness, dissatisfaction), we have gained wisdom. Going against the current, is wisdom. We have gained wisdom when we know that faith is not enough. When we understand that we need both heart and mind quality. She also says, “To realize and understand where truth lies, is the first step in the practice of dhamma. Then not only realize the truth but make it one with ourselves. The is not just to know the dhamma (truth), but to be the dhamma, to embody it. It is not what we know, it is what we are.”
4. and 5. Concentration and Energy.
Example: Just like if we like to make a hole into a brick wall, we can’t go all over the place make little indentations. We have to keep going at it in one place. That’s the same with the one-pointed mind. As it stays in one-place, it has the ability to have other levels of consciousness, which make it possible to have the glimpse of the supramundane reality that the Buddha taught. He taught to go beyond, transcend the everyday kind of reality which is totally imbued with duality. Mine, yours. Good, bad, having or getting rid of, buying or selling, worrying or enjoying, future or the past. This is based on our sense contacts. We all know already that it is not totally satisfactory and we might have already the inner knowing that there is something beyond this everyday reality. We do have to look after our body but there is something more. Meditation brings us to a realization that there is something other than our own being. Concentration is not just about attention on the breath - that’s the beginning, doorway, we go beyond the breath.
Concentration has a very distinct meaning - it means we become able to stay with the mind in one spot. You can readily understand and identify with the fact that if a mind moves form here to there, that it doesn’t have strength. Only when it stays in one spot will it gain great strength.
Energy:
“We need energy for that. We gain energy through our meditation but we need energy to do it. If the mind starts becoming drowsy, it may just be drowsy enough to be quite pleasant, there’s no actual knowing of what goes on in the mind. Energy has left the mind. A clear sign, when meditation is finished, one is ready to have a rest - that means the mind had been drowsy or sleepy. If one feels rejuvenated, new strength in the mind and in the body, then it has worked.” “Energy is connected to will power. Will power is a strong help mate on any path - material or spiritual. Will power is not about power over others, but power over oneself. The one who conquers a thousand armies is nothing compared to one who conquers oneself. These qualities are within ourselves. We all have them.”
“We have the ability for wisdom, faith, mindfulness and concentration and energy. Every human mind can enter into meditative absorption, of experiencing other levels of consciousness. We need continuous effort, patience and diligence.”When we develop these spiritual faculties they become powers, then they take us a long way towards freedom - freedom in our thinking, but freedom from all unsatisfactoriness.
Summary/Conclusion
This is how Thich Nhat Hanh describes, the Five Spiritual Faculties or Bases are (indriyani):
Faith (saddhā): This faith is based on confidence not blind belief. It’s the confidence that comes when a teaching or practice has brought us positive benefits and we have seen transformation in ourselves.
Energy (viriya): This kind of faith helps us to be diligent in our practice. We get energy to take the steps needed to move forward.
Mindfulness (sati): Mindfulness is being present with what is going on within us.
Concentration (samādhi): Mindfulness leads to concentration or stillness, one-pointed awareness of meditation object
Wisdom (pañña): From this stillness/concentration we gain insight that leads to wisdom that leads to liberation.
Thich Nhat Hanh (page 187) says that “If you want wholesome seeds in your mind consciousness, you need the seeds of continuity. “Fruits of the same nature” will resow wholesome seeds in you.”
Thank you!
Sophia + Cristof
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