Five Spiritual Faculties
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
These are inherent faculties of mind and heart that, when fully developed, lead to the end of suffering.
1. Faith; saddha (Pali)
2. Energy; viriya (Pali)
3. Mindfulness; sati (Pali)
4. Concentration; samadhi (Pali)
5. Wisdom; panna (Pali)
In the Pali Canons Sutta Pitaka, indriya is frequently encountered in the context of the "five spiritual faculties" (Pali: panc indriyani) comprised of:
faith or conviction or belief (saddha)
energy or persistence or perseverence (viriya)
mindfulness or memory (sati)
concentration or focus (samadhi)
wisdom or understanding or comprehension (panna).
Together, this set of five facutlies is one of the seven sets of qualities lauded by the Buddha as conducive to Enlightenment.
In Samyutta Nikaya (SN 48.10) is one of several discourses that charactizes these spiritual faculties in the following manner:
Faith/Conviction is faith in the Buddhas awakening.
Energy/Persistence refers to exertion towards the Four Right Efforts.
Mindfulness refers to focusing on the four satipatthana.
Concentration refers to achieving the four jhanas.
Wisdom/Understanding refers to discerning the Four Noble Truths.
In SN 48.51, the Buddha declares that, of these five faculties, wisdom is the "chief" (agga).