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The Five Strengths

AN 5.14, the Vitthata Sutta — set 5, Advanced and Reference Texts

Reading time: about 3 min · 403 words

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Before you read

The five strengths come up again and again in the texts, usually as a bare list. This short discourse says what each one is.

They are the same five qualities as the five faculties in SN 48.10, and they are defined in nearly the same words: confidence, energy, remembering, unification, and discernment. The traditional explanation is that the faculties are the capacities, and the strengths are those capacities once they hold, so that their opposites cannot shake them.

Each definition is practical. Confidence is confidence in the Buddha's awakening. Energy is not putting down the burden. Remembering is calling to mind what was done and said long ago. Unification is the four mental themes. Discernment is the kind of understanding that sees things arise and pass away, and leads to the end of dissatisfaction.

Translation

The Five Strengths

"Bhikkhus, there are these five strengths.

What five? The confidence strength, the energy strength, the remembering strength, the unification strength, and the discernment strength.

The Confidence Strength

And what is the confidence strength, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple has confidence. They place confidence in the awakening of the Tathāgata: 'So indeed is the Buddha — an arahant, perfectly and fully awakened, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, well-departed, knower of the world, unsurpassed guide for those to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.'

Bhikkhus, this is called the confidence strength.

The Energy Strength

And what is the energy strength, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple lives with aroused energy for the abandoning of unwholesome qualities and the taking up of wholesome qualities — steadfast, firm in exertion, not putting down the burden with respect to wholesome qualities.

Bhikkhus, this is called the energy strength.

The Remembering Strength

And what is the remembering strength, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple remembers. They have the highest carefulness in remembering, and they recall and call to mind what was done and said long ago.

Bhikkhus, this is called the remembering strength.

The Unification Strength

And what is the unification strength, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple, quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unwholesome dhammas, enters and remains in the first mental theme, which has thinking and pondering, and the rejoicing and satisfaction born of seclusion.

With the subsiding of thinking and pondering, with inner clarity and singleness of the heart, they enter and remain in the second mental theme, without thinking and pondering, with the rejoicing and satisfaction born of unification.

With the fading of rejoicing, they remain in dynamic balance, remembering and clearly knowing, and experience satisfaction in the body. They enter and remain in the third mental theme, of which the noble ones say: 'One of dynamic balance and remembering stays satisfied.'

With the abandoning of satisfaction and discomfort, and with the earlier ending of gladness and sadness, they enter and remain in the fourth mental theme, without discomfort and without satisfaction, purified by dynamic balance and remembering.

Bhikkhus, this is called the unification strength.

The Discernment Strength

And what is the discernment strength, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple discerns. They have the discernment that leads to arising and passing away — noble, penetrating, rightly leading to the wearing away of dissatisfaction.

Bhikkhus, this is called the discernment strength.

Bhikkhus, these are the five strengths."

The fourth discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (25)
arahant
Someone who has completed the path and has nothing further to do. Left untranslated; "saint" and "perfected one" both mislead.
awakening
Coming fully awake to how things are. Sometimes translated "enlightenment," a word this project avoids as needlessly mystical.
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
body
The physical body, as distinct from speech and the mental side of experience.
born of seclusion
Coming from having stepped away from busyness and distraction, rather than from anything acquired.
burden
The five clung-to heaps pictured as a load: experience taken personally. Ignorant wanting picks it up; someone who has laid down the burden no longer takes it up.
clarity
This project's rendering of "amoha," literally "non-delusion" -- seeing without the confusion and distortion that drive harmful action.
clearly knowing
Acting while plainly aware of what you are doing.
conduct
This project's rendering of "sīla", often translated "morality" or "virtue". It means how a person actually behaves. The rest of the practice grows from it; it is not a set of rules to obey.
dissatisfaction
This translation's rendering of "dukkha," the Buddhist term for the unsatisfying, unstable quality of ordinary experience. Often translated "suffering," but that can sound more dramatic than the everyday sense of things not quite being right.
dynamic balance
This project's rendering of "upekkhā" (often translated "equanimity") -- a steadiness that stays engaged rather than checking out, distinct from indifference.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
five strengths
This project's rendering of "pañca balāni" -- confidence, energy, remembering, unification, and discernment. The same five qualities as the five faculties, named as strengths.
gladness
This project's rendering of "muditā", often translated "sympathetic joy". It means being truly glad at someone else's good fortune. You cultivate it as a practice; you do not assume it comes naturally.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
mental theme
This project's rendering of "jhāna" -- a single theme the mind rests on and holds steadily. Described in a sequence of four, each calmer than the last. Most translations leave the word in Pāli.
noble disciple
Someone who has had the breakthrough into the path and so is no longer merely an ordinary person. It does not mean noble by birth, and does not require being a monastic.
rejoicing
This project's rendering of "pīti" (often translated "rapture") -- the bright, uplifted gladness that shows up when practice is going well.
remembering
This project's rendering of "sati". It means actively keeping what matters in mind and coming back to it when you lose it. It is not bare attention to whatever happens to be present.
Tathāgata
A title for the Buddha, traditionally left untranslated. It means roughly "the one who has arrived at things as they truly are."
unification
Short for unification of mind (samādhi) inside a longer phrase, such as "born of unification" or "the faculty of unification."
unwholesome
This project's rendering of "akusala". Roughly: mentally and ethically harmful. It is blameworthy, leads to harm, and people with good judgment criticize it.
wearing away
The gradual using-up of something until it runs out completely. The texts use it especially for what has to run out before release.
wholesome
This project's rendering of "kusala". Roughly: mentally and ethically healthy. It is blameless, leads to well-being, and people with good judgment praise it.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
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