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The Five Faculties

SN 48.10, the Dutiyavibhaṅga Sutta — set 5, Advanced and Reference Texts

Reading time: about 4 min · 643 words

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Before you read

Five words that sound like personality traits — confidence, energy, remembering, unification of mind, discernment — and not one of them is defined here as a trait. Every answer starts the same way, with a person, and then describes something being done. Confidence is placed somewhere specific, for reasons the text spells out. Energy is four efforts, named one at a time. Remembering is recalling what was said long ago, and also watching four things as they happen.

The definitions get longer as the list goes on, and the last one turns out to be the four noble truths — which puts the whole list inside the path rather than somewhere before it.

This is a reference text. Read it straight through once to see the shape, then come back to whichever of the five you were least sure about.

Translation

The Five Faculties

"Bhikkhus, there are these five faculties.

What five? The faculty of confidence ... the faculty of discernment.

The Faculty of Confidence

And what is the faculty of confidence, 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 faculty of confidence.

The Faculty of Energy

And what is the faculty of energy, 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.

They generate desire for the non-arising of unarisen harmful, unwholesome qualities; they make an effort, arouse energy, take hold of the heart, and exert themselves.

They generate desire for the abandoning of arisen harmful, unwholesome qualities; they make an effort, arouse energy, take hold of the heart, and exert themselves.

They generate desire for the arising of unarisen wholesome qualities; they make an effort, arouse energy, take hold of the heart, and exert themselves.

They generate desire for the continuation, non-confusion, increase, abundance, development, and fulfilment of arisen wholesome qualities; they make an effort, arouse energy, take hold of the heart, and exert themselves.

Bhikkhus, this is called the faculty of energy.

The Faculty of Remembering

And what is the faculty of remembering, 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.

They remain observing the body in relation to the body, ardent, with clear knowing, with remembering, and with coveting and distress about the world put aside.

They remain observing felt experience ...

They remain observing the heart ...

They remain observing dhammas among dhammas, ardent, with clear knowing, with remembering, and with coveting and distress about the world put aside.

Bhikkhus, this is called the faculty of remembering.

The Faculty of Unification

And what is the faculty of unification, bhikkhus?

A noble disciple makes relinquishment the object, gains unification of mind, gains directness of heart.

Quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unwholesome dhammas, they enter and remain 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 faculty of unification.

The Faculty of Discernment

And what is the faculty of discernment, 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.

They discern it as it has come to be: 'This is dissatisfaction.' They discern it as it has come to be: 'This is the origin of dissatisfaction.' They discern it as it has come to be: 'This is the quenching of dissatisfaction.' They discern it as it has come to be: 'This is the way of practice leading to the quenching of dissatisfaction.'

Bhikkhus, this is called the faculty of discernment.

Bhikkhus, these are the five faculties."

Words used in this translation (30)
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.
clear knowing
Knowing plainly what you are doing while you are doing it.
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.
faculties
The capacities used in practice, especially confidence, energy, remembering, unification of mind, and discernment. You can train them and bring them into balance.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
felt experience
This project's rendering of "vedanā", often translated "feeling". It is the immediate pleasant, painful, or mixed tone of an experience, before any story we build on top of it.
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.
quenching
An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.
rejoicing
This project's rendering of "pīti" (often translated "rapture") -- the bright, uplifted gladness that shows up when practice is going well.
relinquishment
This project's rendering of "vossagga" -- letting go, in the sense of releasing a hold rather than pushing something away.
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."
unification of mind
This project's rendering of "samādhi" -- the thinking mind and heart gathered together into one organized, workable whole instead of pulling against each other. It does not mean narrowing attention onto one point. Usually translated "concentration," which this project avoids because it suggests forcing and strain.
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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