There are many lists in Buddhism. They were obviously a good aid to memory in an oral tradition and of course Buddhism was an oral tradition for at least a couple of centuries. Some lists are meant to be comprehensive, to encompass the whole of the Buddha’s teachings. Other lists are a more detailed analysis of some practice or idea. Dharma lists are a bit like naming parts of the body. You could say a body consists of a torso, a head two legs and two arms and that is a big overall list that includes everything, a bit like a childs drawing, short on detail but recognisable. Or perhaps a more sophisticated list might be in terms of the body’s systems; blood circulation, nervous system, respiratory system, lymphatic system and so on. But then you could have another list which would be a detailed analysis of a particular limb or organ; like an analysis of all the bones, nerves, veins etc., in your hand.
Similarly with Buddhist lists, there are lists that encompass the whole Dharma and lists that are just dealing with a particular limb or aspect of the Dharma. For example the list Ethics, Mediation and Wisdom, although short is comprehensive. Like the child’s drawing. But then each one of those can be analysed further. For example, ethics into the five or ten precepts and then further the second precept could be analysed down into the five kinds of gifts or the four ways of giving and so on.
But it is important that we remember that there is a whole body, a whole body of the Dharma and it should be possible to relate any list back to that complete body. If we can’t relate it to the whole body, then perhaps it’s not really part of the body of the dharma, just as your handbag or wallet is not part of your physical body, however closely related.
Also it is worth noting that every list is just a particular way of breaking down a whole. It is for convenience of memorising, the convenience of understanding and convenience of practising. Just as the body can be looked at in terms of limbs and organs or in terms of systems and so on, the Dharma can be looked at from different perspectives and in different ways. But all comprehensive lists will overlap and include each other.
The list of the 5 spiritual faculties that we are exploring here is a comprehensive list and an important one in the Buddhist tradition. In Pali it is called the Panca Indriya and there is another identical list called the panca bala. Panca means five, Indriya is related to the god Indra and it has the meaning of a controlling principle. The idea is that if you practice the five spiritual faculties then you will come to embody them and therefore they will become the controlling or ruling principles of your life. They will be how you naturally function in the world, how you naturally think, how you naturally respond.
When they are completely fulfilled by you they become the five balas. Bala means power, so they become the five powers. This is similar to the idea of the mundane eightfold path and the transcendental eightfold path. To begin with and for a long time practices are a discipline and then when realisation deepens the same practices become an expression of that realisation. As the Zen saying goes; before satori I chop wood, I draw water, after satori, I chop wood, I draw water. The same practices but from a different basis, a different motivation. For example, generosity can be a practice to help develop the altruistic heart and mind and generosity can be the completely natural expression of an altruistic heart and mind. From the outside no difference may be visible.
The 5 faculties and the five powers together are very comprehensive. This is the case for a number of Dharma lists, such as the threefold way, the eightfold path and the six perfections. And of course you can, with a bit of thought correlate all of these lists, even though they may not include the same terms.nBut are these really comprehensive lists? Do they encompass the whole path of the Dharma as a practice?
For instance Compassion is not mentioned in any of these lists- surely that can’t be left out of a comprehensive overview of the Dharma. Now there are two ways to answer this question: you could say that they are not comprehensive because they don’t include compassion. Or you could say yes they are comprehensive because compassion is not a practice in the same way. The Dharma as teaching arises out of compassion and when practised fully it finds expression in compassion. Giving the Dharma is the great compassion and it is inherent in the Dharma that it can only be given it cannot be possessed. The Dharma is in a sense synonymous with compassion.
It’s a bit like saying that the analysis of the body into parts or systems or limbs is not comprehensive because it doesn’t take into account the fact that a body can move and act. It is taken for granted that a living body is alive. It is taking for granted that a living Dharma is compassionate, it is compassion.
Bhante Sangharakshita used the 5 spiritual faculties as an organising principle for his seminal work The Survey of Buddhism. In order to talk about the whole of the Buddhist tradition he needed some way of organising all the different schools of Buddhism into a coherent pattern and the five spititual faculties served this purpose, because they are such a comprehensive list.
One of the key features of the five spiritual faculties is the idea of balance; balancing practices against each other. The five spiritual faculties could be seen as a linear path from Faith to Wisdom. However it is better to see them as a mandala.
It’s probably about time I said what they are:Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Meditation and Wisdom. (Saddha or Shraddha, Virya, Sati or Smrti, Samadhi and Prajna.) Faith is balanced by Wisdom. In practical terms this means that if you are a very devotional type of person by nature you need to balance that with the practice of reflection and study. If you are someone who loves to study and reflect and think then you need to balance that with devotional practice, something more emotional and imaginative. Energy is balanced by meditation. If you love to meditate and get concentrated easily and have very positive and even blissful experiences in meditation then to guard against self-centredness and refined hedonism you need to act in the world for the benefit of others and work on developing an interest in others and an empathy with them.If you are an action person who loves to do things and make things happen then you need to balance that with turning inwards in meditation and acquiring a more thorough self-knowledge and refining your sensibilities through meditation.
The only faculty that doesn’t need to be balanced is Mindfulness. You can develop mindfulness as much as possible. There is no such thing as too much mindfulness. This is mindfulness seen comprehensively from it’s Buddhist perspective, rooted in right view and ethics. Mindfulness in it’s full Buddhist sense is the faculty that enables us to be aware enough to take the necessary steps to balance our practice.
That is a very brief introduction to the five spiritual faculties. If you would like to know more you can find many talks on the different elements of the five spiritual faculties on Free Buddhist Audio. (www.freebuddhistaudio.com)
