Five Strengths

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37 DHAMMĀ of ENLIGHTENMENT   4 satipaṭṭhāna     4 Efforts 4 Bases   5 Faculties 5 Powers   7 Factors      8 Path Factors

The Five Strengths (Sanskrit, Pali: pañca bala) in Buddhism are faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. They are one of the seven sets of "qualities conducive to enlightenment." They are parallel facets of the five "spiritual faculties."

Translation

Pañca (Sanskrit, Pali) means "five." Bala (Sanskrit, Pali) means "power," "strength," "force."

Exegesis

Faith and Wisdom balance each other, as do Energy and Concentration. The Five Faculties are ‘controlling' faculties because they control or master their opposites. The faculties and powers are two aspects of the same thing.

1. Faith (saddha) - controls doubt
2. Energy/Effort/Persistence (viriya) – controls laziness
3. Mindfulness (sati); - controls heedlessness
4. Concentration (samādhi) - controls distraction
5. Wisdom/Discernment (pañña, prajña) – controls ignorance

References

• 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/.

See also

• Bodhipakkhiyadhamma - lists the 32 qualities conducive to Enlightenment, which includes the Five Powers.
• Indriya - "faculty," includes extended discussion of the Five Spiritual Faculties.
• Five Wisdoms

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