The Great Book
The "Great Book" is the last and largest of the five books of the Linked Discourses. It consists of twelve saṁyuttas, almost all of which deal with an aspect of Buddhist practice, or the path. The first of these, indeed, is the "Section on the Path" (Magga Saṁyutta), and in the northern canons the book as a whole is referred to as the "Book of the Path" (Maggavagga).
The first seven saṁyuttas offer a detailed treatment of seven sets of factors on Buddhist practice. These sets came to be known to the later traditions as the 37 bodhipakkhiyā dhammā, or "qualities leading to awakening". Note that this term is not used in this way in the suttas; it is, rather, applied to one of the sets, the five faculties (SN 48.55, etc.). While the 37 factors are mentioned throughout the canon, it is in this book that we find the primary source for these teachings. Subsequent saṁyuttas deal with the path from different perspectives, while the final two deal with stream-entry and the four noble truths respectively.
While most books of the Saṁyutta are dominated by one major collection, the Great Book features several saṁyuttas of comparable importance. For this reason, I will briefly discuss most of the substantive saṁyuttas. I leave aside those that are merely sets of template repetitions, and also the final two saṁyuttas on stream entry and the truths, as I have covered these topics elsewhere. I preface the discussion of the individual saṁyuttas with a general discussion of the "qualities leading to awakening".
The saṁyuttas in the Great Book display considerable complexity in their structure and use of repetitions. But for fear of overburdening the discussion, I refer anyone interested to the relevant sections of Ven Bodhi's Connected Discourses.
The 37 Qualities Leading to Awakening
For the early Buddhist texts, the primary concern was the spiritual practice that leads to the escape from suffering. This is the fourth noble truth. From the very first discourse, this was spelled out by a specific set of factors comprising the path to awakening: the noble eightfold path. During his long teaching career, the Buddha presented this path in many different ways, formally or informally, briefly or in detail, emphasizing different aspects to suit the occasion or the person.
Before his death, it seems, the Buddha had begun to systematize these various presentations, putting together seven sets of qualities pertaining to the path, totaling 37 factors. Each set presented the path to liberation from a slightly different perspective.
The seven primary saṁyuttas of the Mahāvagga contain the same teachings, albeit in a different sequence. The Mahāvagga begins with the noble eightfold path, due to its prestige and importance as the teaching on the path. But when presented elsewhere in the suttas we find the sets arranged numerically.
Four kinds of mindfulness meditation. The observation of:
body
feelings
mind
principles
Four right efforts:
to prevent the bad
to give up the bad
to give rise to the good
to maintain and grow the good
Four bases of psychic power:
enthusiasm
energy
mind
inquiry
Five faculties:
faith
energy
mindfulness
immersion
wisdom
Five powers:
faith
energy
mindfulness
immersion
wisdom
Seven factors of awakening:
mindfulness
investigation of principles
energy
rapture
tranquility
immersion
equanimity
Noble eightfold path:
right view
right thought
right speech
right action
right livelihood
right effort
right mindfulness
right immersion
A cursory glance at the Pali texts shows how influential and widespread this set of 37 qualities was. It appears in each of the four nikāyas (DN 28, DN 29, DN 16, MN 103, MN 104, SN 22.81, SN 22.101, SN 43.12, AN 8.19) as well as the Udāna (Ud 5.5). It is one of the few doctrinal teachings to be mentioned several times in the Vinaya (Pj 4, Pc 8, Kd 19). It occurs constantly in the late canonical texts of the Khuddaka (Ne 8, Cnd 12, Cnd 15, Cnd 20, Cnd 22, Mnd 6, Mnd 7, Mnd 14, Mnd 16, Ps 1.5, Ps 2.8, Ps 2.9, Mil 3.1.13, Mil 6.4.1, Mil 6.4.2, etc.) as well as the Abhidhamma (Vb 17, Dt 1.2, Dt 2.1, Dt 2.6, Kv 4.3, Kv 12.5, Kv 14.9, Kv 15.6, Kv 21.1, Kv 21.5, etc.).
But its influence was not to stop there, for it remained a central doctrinal principle in later forms of Buddhism. In the Mahāyāna, for example, the same 37 qualities came to be known as the "37 practices of the Bodhisattva".
The Buddha declared that these teachings emerged from his direct knowledge. They are factors of practice, to be developed and experienced by those on the spiritual journey. However, from their earliest appearances, they were also treated as teachings to be learned, memorized, and recited. From DN 29:
You should all come together and recite in concert, without disputing, those things I have taught you from my direct knowledge, comparing meaning with meaning and phrasing with phrasing, so that this spiritual path may last for a long time.
Such passages place the 37 factors at the heart of the Buddha's scriptural legacy. But what, exactly, was to be recited? Surely such momentous teaching must have entailed something more than simply listing the factors. There must have been an agreed-upon body of texts, a canon of scripture recited in unity by the early community. And what could that have been if not these very teachings, the collected discourses on the factors of the path found today in the Mahāvagga? This is not to deny that expansion and elaboration of these have occurred, but the core teachings of the Mahāvagga were, in all probability, the heart of the scriptures for the earliest Buddhists.
Certain of the sets focus on a specific area, such as mindfulness or effort, while others have a more overall view, such as the noble eightfold path. Nevertheless, they are deeply interconnected, with the same factors recurring in multiple sets. Overall, they strongly emphasize meditation, although other dimensions of spiritual practice, such as ethics and study, are also found. Here is a brief overview of the general distinctions in perspective between the groups. Note that the first three sets loosely correspond to the final three factors of the noble eightfold path: right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.
Four kinds of mindfulness meditation
: The practice of undertaking meditation leading to serenity and insight.
Four right efforts
: The putting forth of effort in mental cultivation.
Four bases of psychic power
: Development of deep immersion leading to various extraordinary abilities.
Five faculties
: The mental qualities that lead to liberation, and which characterize the mind of one on the path.
Five powers
: The same as the faculties.
Seven factors of awakening
: Retention and investigation of teachings lead to the progressive deepening of the emotional qualities that ripen in liberation.
Noble eightfold path
: The broadest in scope of the sets and the only one to explicitly mention ethics.
As is common in the suttas, these sets sometimes refer to similar qualities with different terms. The quality of wisdom, for example, is called "observation of principles" (dhamānupassanā) as the fourth kind of mindfulness meditation, "inquiry" (vīmaṁsa) in the bases for psychic power, "wisdom" (paññā) in the faculties and powers, "investigation of principles" (dhammavicaya) in the factors of awakening, and "right view" (sammādiṭṭhi) in the noble eightfold path. The relations between all these terms are analyzed in detail in the Abhidhamma and commentarial texts.
Bear in mind, though, that each context has its own integrity, its specific purpose and orientation, and the choice of different terms is by no means arbitrary. "Right view", being placed at the start of the path, emphasizes the theoretical understanding gained by hearing the teaching. "Investigation of principles", similarly located near the beginning, refers to the reflection and inquiry into these teachings as realized in oneself. "Observation of principles" and "inquiry" occur after the development of deep stillness in absorption meditation and refer to the inquiry and investigation into the nature of that experience, and the meditative processes and conditions that shape such profound experiences. And "wisdom", the culmination of all these, is the realization of the four noble truths, the liberating insight of the stream-enterer. So when considered on their own, as distinct mental factors, they can be regarded as synonyms. But their true depth is realized only by understanding the role they play in their context.
When surveying these teachings and reflecting on them as a spiritual path, there is something rather odd about them. They appear quite different from the practices that one normally considers to be "religious". Where are the rituals? The sacrifice? The devotion to deity? The allegiance to an institution? The symbols, rites, and mythology? These things are starkly, dramatically absent. To be sure, some such things may be found, in one form or another, elsewhere in the canon, and more so in later Buddhist traditions. But here, in the teachings regarded by the Buddha himself as his core message and practice, we find only balanced and reasoned development of behavior, emotions, and intellect. It is an integrated and rational path, one that does not depend on cultural or historical specifics, but on universal human qualities. The factors that lead to awakening, all 37 of them, are things that every human may find within themselves. In pointing to these qualities, the Buddha was pointing to the spiritual potential of all beings and offering us the means to grow and develop the best parts of ourselves.
SN 45: Linked Discourses on the Path
The noble eightfold path was famously declared to be the "middle way" in the Buddha's very first teaching (SN 56.11). It covers the entire spiritual path (SN 45.6, SN 45.19, SN 45.20), beginning with the acquisition of right view as the starting point (SN 45.1), and leading to deep meditative immersion as the immediate precursor to the realization of the four noble truths.
The noble eightfold path is said to be a "divine vehicle" which carries us to awakening, its factors compared to the parts of a chariot (SN 45.4). Practicing it leads to the end of suffering (SN 45.5), but only if it begins with right view, else it will lead to harming oneself (SN 45.9).
The factors are defined at SN 45.8, as well as several other places in the canon.
Right view (sammādiṭṭhi)
: Understanding the four noble truths.
Right thought (sammāsaṅkappa)
: Thoughts of letting go, love, and kindness.
Right speech (sammāvācā)
: Speech that is true, harmonious, gentle, and meaningful.
Right action (sammākammanta)
: Avoiding killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct.
Right livelihood (sammāājīva)
: Avoiding harmful livelihood.
Right effort (sammāvāyāma)
: The four right efforts.
Right mindfulness (sammāsati)
: The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Right immersion (sammāsamādhi)
: The four absorptions.
The eight factors have a clear progressive aspect, as made clear from the beginning of this collection (SN 45.1). They follow the same general course that is spelled out in the Gradual Training, though with less emphasis on the monastic life, as both renunciates and lay folk should practice them (SN 45.24). One hears the teaching and gains an initial understanding (right view). Then one determines to live following this (right thought), undertaking the essentials of ethical conduct in speech (right speech) and body (right action), and ensuring that one does not earn money in a manner that causes harm (right livelihood). With this foundation one makes an effort to purify the mind (right effort), undertaking meditation (right mindfulness) leading to deep absorption (right immersion) (SN 45.28).
When all these factors have been fulfilled, the mind is ready to make the breakthrough to the realization of the four noble truths. In this way the understanding of four noble truths, beginning as a concept accepted on faith, gradually deepens throughout the spiritual journey, nourished by experience and reflection. Right view guides us on each step of the path, learning from mistakes, revealing our hidden motivations, and uncovering unexpected possibilities. Ultimately it transforms into the liberating insight of the noble ones (SN 45.13, SN 45.35, etc.). The key to this transformation is the brilliant clarity and stillness of meditative absorption, a higher consciousness that sees further and deeper than ever before, and which has the power to completely eradicate greed, hate, and delusion (SN 45.36, etc.).
Nevertheless, despite this progression, it is not the case that the factors are to be undertaken in a literal one-at-a-time fashion. The "path" is only a metaphor, and in real life, spiritual development is more complex.
The factors of the path are best seen as providing a framework for reflecting on and if necessary changing one's own life and practice. Each of these factors is essential, and if you find yourself missing out on higher factors, try asking whether you've put enough work into the basics. Sometimes people seem enthusiastic to get to the higher states of consciousness, without laying the broad and secure foundations offered by the simpler factors of the path. If developing deep meditation is proving difficult, then the answer is not to try to force it to ripen quicker, nor, worse, to explain it away as being somehow unnecessary. Rather, pay closer attention to improving right view through study and discussion of Dhamma; to developing right thought by becoming more generous and open-hearted; or to being more careful in one's ethical and business conduct (SN 45.50--54).
And remember, this path is not walked alone. For all the emphasis on solitary meditation, this saṁyutta reminds us that good friendship is the whole of the spiritual life (SN 45.2, SN 45.3), for good friendship precedes the noble eightfold path (SN 45.49).
SN 46: Linked Discourses on the Awakening Factors
These seven factors are called the "awakening factors" (bojjaṅga, i.e. bodhi + aṅga) because they lead to awakening (SN 46.5, SN 46.21). Of themselves, they focus on the psychology of contemplation, but the saṁyutta makes it clear from the start that, like all presentations of the path, they rest on ethics (SN 46.1).
Unlike the factors of the path, there is no explicit definition. Nevertheless, we should of course interpret these factors in the same way as they occur in the eightfold path and elsewhere. However, there are some new factors, as well as a few places that offer a new perspective on some familiar factors. Most of the following details come from SN 46.52.
Mindfulness (sati)
: Includes both the recollection of teachings (SN 46.3) as well as mindful awareness of phenomena internal and external.
Investigation of principles (dhammavicaya)
: Includes both reflection and investigation of the teachings (SN 46.3) as well as investigation into phenomena internal and external.
Energy (viriya)
: Both mental and physical.
Rapture (pīti)
: This is the experience of uplifting joy that emerges as the mind becomes peaceful in meditation. It includes the rapture of the first and second absorptions.
Tranquility (passadhi)
: Both physical and mental
Immersion (samādhi)
: The absorptions.
Equanimity (upekkhā)
: This may be both the equanimity of the higher states of immersion as well as that of deep insight.
One detail of the preceding probably needs further explanation; that is, the idea that mindfulness includes recollection of the teachings. Mindfulness is defined throughout the suttas as the ability to recollect things that were said and done long ago (DN 33, DN 34, MN 53, SN 48.9, SN 48.50, AN 4.35, AN 8.13, AN 10.17, etc.). The root meaning of the word sati is in fact "memory" and in the Brahmanical traditions it refers to the memorized scriptures. But of course today we understand mindfulness as "clear awareness" of phenomena in the present.
This saṁyutta offers a clue that helps resolve these two senses. In SN 46.56, a brahmin asks the Buddha why he can sometimes remember his chanting and sometimes cannot. The Buddha explains that the presence of the hindrances obscures his memory, giving an elaborate series of similes comparing water in various states with the various hindrances. How, we might wonder, does a reciter of oral texts achieve this? By maintaining continued and clear focus during the act of recitation. When the mind wanders and gets distracted, the recitation is lost. Sati does not mean the unstructured memories that happen to come to mind, but the steady flow and continuity of consciously focused awareness. And in this way, the act of recollecting scriptures suddenly seems a lot like keeping attention on one's meditation.
The factors are sequential, with each serving as condition or fuel for the next (SN 46.3). Multiple suttas stress this aspect of conditionality. Each of the awakening factors is nourished by a specific kind of fuel (SN 46.51). The set as a whole emerges from the practice of the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and the series of practices that underlie them (SN 45.6). They affect and condition the mind in distinct ways; thus when the mind is tired, it's best to develop investigation, energy, and rapture, but when restless, develop tranquility, immersion, and equanimity. But mindfulness is always useful (SN 46.53). And the factors themselves are the condition for awakening (SN 46.56).
Nevertheless, even the perfected ones continue to practice them, donning any one of them whenever they wish, like a garment (SN 46.4). Such a one has "acquired the path" and understands the true power of the awakening factors to lead to the end of rebirth (SN 46.30).
The saṁyutta repeatedly opposes the awakening factors with their dark counterparts, the five hindrances of sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. These are compared to corruptions in gold (SN 46.33) or to parasites (SN 46.39).
A unique aspect of the awakening factors is that their recitation is said to be effective in helping cure disease. Several suttas speak of how a sick monk---and even the Buddha himself---becomes inspired by hearing them recited and rises cured (SN 46.14--16). Understandably, this has ensured that reciting passages on the awakening factors for sick people remains popular in Theravadin culture. If such recitation seems less effective today than in the suttas, it should be borne in mind that these are cases of advanced and experienced meditators, perfected ones indeed, who had already developed these factors to completion. Their inspiration is on a different level than that of an ordinary person. And even so, there is no guarantee: there are plenty of cases in the early texts where perfected ones fall ill with no cure.
Most of the awakening factors refer to the emotional aspects of the spiritual path, the joy and peace of meditation. This is further emphasized in SN 46.54, which connects the awakening factors with the four immeasurables or divine meditations---love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity. The Buddhist mendicants are challenged by followers of other paths, who say that they too teach the development of these things. The Buddha points out, however, that he describes how to develop these things to their fullest potential. And to do this the immeasurables are empowered by the awakening factors.
SN 47: Linked Discourses on Mindfulness Meditation
The Pali term satipaṭṭhāna means the "establishing of mindfulness". I usually render it more colloquially as simply "mindfulness meditation". While elsewhere sati is defined as "memory", here it is described as anupassanā, "sustained observation". It refers to the meditative practice of setting up and maintaining continued and unbroken awareness in four distinct arenas:
Body (kāya)
: Any aspect of the physical, including the breath, the postures, parts of the body, and so on.
Feelings (vedanā)
: Different kinds of feeling, whether painful, pleasurable, or neutral, spiritual or carnal.
Mind (citta)
: States of awareness, whether under the influence of greed, hate, and delusion, or free of such.
Principles (dhammā)
: Understanding the causal relations that lead to suffering or to peace, especially by reflecting on the process of meditation itself.
Each of these can include a diverse range of experience. But in meditation, it is important to keep focus. The standard formula phrases this through the use of the reflexive idiom kāye kāyānupassī. Here the locative case is used quite literally to mean "one of the bodies in the body", or as we would say in English, a particular aspect of the body. Thus the meditator does not continually shift attention to whatever comes into mind but maintains a steady, continuous awareness of a specific aspect of physical experience.
This is a progressive practice. The nature of this progress becomes more clear when it is recognized that mindfulness of breathing is a form of satipaṭṭhāna practice.
1. Meditation begins with attention to the relatively coarse phenomena of the physical breath until it becomes calm and still.
2. A subtle sense of joy and bliss pervades the breath and the body.
3. The mind becomes free, immersed in the singular experience of the bliss of release.
4. One contemplates the changing process of meditation that has led to this point. The mind, empowered by immersion, lets go.
But satipaṭṭhāna is broader than I have indicated here, for it includes not only the positive experiences that evolve during meditation but also the negative ones: the pain, the constricted mind, the hindrances. By encompassing the full range of experience, satipaṭṭhāna promotes a broad, inclusive approach to meditation, one based on awareness rather than control, laying the groundwork for the flowering of wisdom.
This saṁyutta presents a series of insightful and often delightful suttas on satipaṭṭhāna, but it does not define the scope of the meditation. The definitions above are derived from the longer discourses today found at MN 10 and DN 22. However, these have undergone considerable late development as compared with the short discourses of the saṁyutta, and one cannot simply assume that everything in MN 10 and DN 22 applies in the saṁyutta.
The Pali compound satipaṭṭhāna resolves to sati + upaṭṭhāna. This phrase is familiar from the Gradual Training, where it refers to the moment when a practitioner sits down in seclusion and begins meditation by "establishing mindfulness" (satiṁ upaṭṭhapetvā). It thus refers primarily to the formal practice of meditation.
Today it is common to speak of "mindfulness in daily life", but in the suttas, this is called sampajañña, which I translate as "situational awareness". This is one of the series of practices in the Gradual Training that lays the groundwork for formal meditation. SN 47.2 makes plain the distinction between these two by treating them as two qualities the mendicant should develop. This is not to say, of course, that they are completely separate, for nothing in spiritual and mental development happens in isolation. Sampajañña is not limited to "mindfulness in daily life", but plays a role in absorptions and insight as well (see SN 47.35). But it is to say that these two practices are primarily distinct, with situational awareness helping to prepare the mind for mindfulness meditation.
The standard formula describes the mindful meditator with four terms. These refer back to the fundamental helper practices of the Gradual Training, reminding us that satipaṭṭhāna meditation does not happen in isolation:
Keen (ātāpī)
: possessing persistent and unflagging energy.
Aware (sampajāno)
: possessing situational awareness.
Mindful (satimā)
: possessing mindfulness.
Rid of desire and aversion for the world (vineyya loke abhijjhādomanassaṁ)
: having eliminated the overt forms of desire and aversion through the practice of sense restraint. The phrase abhijjhādomanassa is elsewhere used only in the context of sense restraint (DN 10, MN 33, SN 35.120, AN 4.14, etc.).
In the eightfold path, the awakening factors, the faculties, and the powers, mindfulness meditation is one of the key factors leading to deep meditative stillness and immersion. It is defined elsewhere as "the basis for immersion in samādhi" (MN 44: cattāro satipaṭṭhānā samādhinimittā). With the charming parable of a cook, SN 47.8 shows how a skillful mindfulness meditator, by understanding the characteristics of their mind, enters immersion and abandons defilements, while a poor meditator fails. In SN 47.4 the Buddha urges all meditators, whether beginners or advanced, to practice mindfulness to the level of full immersion (ekodibhūtā vippasannacittā samāhitā ekaggacittā; "at one, with minds that are clear, immersed in samādhi, and unified").
The centrality of meditative immersion is reinforced by the saying that satipaṭṭhāna is the "path to convergence" (ekāyano maggo). This saying is famous from MN 10 but sourced from the Saṁyutta, where the saying is placed in the mouth of Brahmā (SN 47.1, SN 47.18, SN 47.43). It is a term from the Upaniṣads, which in contemplative contexts means "the place where all things come together as one" (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4:11).
The meditative absorptions (jhānas) are explicitly brought into satipaṭṭhāna in the extended and late passage on the four noble truths in DN 22. However they are implicit in many places, including the observation of feelings under the notions of "spiritual rapture" and "spiritual bliss", which are defined in terms of the absorptions (SN 36.31); as well as in the observation of mind under the mind that is "expansive", "unexcelled", "immersed", "freed", all of which are terms for deep states of absorption; or the discussion at MN 125.
This is not to say that insight (or discernment, vipassanā) has no place in satipaṭṭhāna. On the contrary, the fourth of the satipaṭṭhānas, the observation of principles, is primarily concerned with the insight that follows from meditative immersion. Here, as described in MN 10, one does not merely observe the presence and absence of various factors, one understands the reason why they appear and disappear. And understanding causality is the heart of insight. This is reinforced in the teaching on mindfulness of breathing, which introduces the contemplation of impermanence at this point.
Two suttas bring the vipassanā aspect to the fore. In SN 47.40, the Buddha first teaches the standard satipaṭṭhāna practice, then introduces the "development" of satipaṭṭhāna. In the suttas, "development" means the enhancement and expansion of what is already there. (Bhāvanā is derived from the causative form of the word "to be", i.e. "to make be more".) This further development involves contemplating all four of the satipaṭṭhānas in terms of origin and cessation. The exact meaning of this is spelled out in SN 47.42, which gives the origin of each of the four.
A distinctive feature of this collection is the number of charming parables, which are as memorable as they are amusing. In addition to the story of the cook which we mentioned above (SN 47.8), we hear how a quail learned to escape a hawk (SN 47.6), how a foolish monkey got trapped in tar (SN 47.7), and how two acrobats support each other (SN 47.19). Another discourse sets a seemingly impossible challenge for mindfulness practice: to walk, carrying a bowl of oil filled to the brim, between a popular performer and the crowd jostling to see her, while a man with a drawn sword waits to chop off your head if you spill a drop (SN 47.20)!
SN 48: Linked Discourses on the Faculties
The word indriya has a rather interesting history. It occurs 39 times in the Ṛg Veda in the general sense of "the power of Indra", the great warrior-god and dragon-slayer known in Pali as Sakka. But the nature of this power is perhaps not what one might imagine, for more than two-thirds of these cases connect indriya with soma.
Now, soma was of course a drug, probably a preparation from the amphetamine-like stimulant ephedra. It was drunk by the ancient Indo-Europeans to imbue warriors with berserk energy on the battlefield. As well as taming the horse and inventing the fast two-wheeled chariot, drug-enhanced combat was one of the key innovations underlying the military success of the Indo-Europeans.
In the Vedic culture this was ritualized as religious practice: Indra himself drinks soma to magnify his potency. He becomes unstoppable and crushes all his enemies before him. His devotees follow his example, manifesting the power of the god within themselves. The drug-induced high gave them the might of the gods. But the crucial point is that the power is not borrowed from Indra; rather, both god and devotee draw power from the same source. It was inside them all along, it just needed the soma to bring it out.
By the time of the Buddha, the Vedic age was long-gone and the soma was largely forgotten. Later commentators, unfamiliar with its Vedic roots, defined indriya as "rulership", and the various indriyas in Buddhism as the governing faculties that exercise control over their domains. But the use in the suttas shows that the meaning lies closer to the Vedic sense of "potency". The indriyas are innate potentials that can be manifested in the right conditions.
This is why, after the Buddha's awakening, he surveyed the world and assessed the indriyas of the many different beings in it. He saw the spiritual potential latent within each person to different degrees, and realized that this hidden potential could be drawn out with the right teaching and encouragement (SN 6.1).
To formulate a teaching on the indriyas, the Buddha drew upon a set of five qualities he had developed under his former teachers Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta (MN 26:17, etc.). That these are a set of teachings in the Brahmanical tradition is confirmed by their mention in the Yogasūtra (1.20). He called this set the five indriyas.
The same qualities were also known as the balas or "powers". At SN 48.43 the Buddha discusses the relation between these two sets, saying they are like a river that flows around an island. They are part of the same stream and go to the same place, but from a certain perspective, they can be distinguished. The term bala, like indriya, is Vedic, with the same basic sense of potency or strength, and occurs in contexts featuring Indra and his soma. The balas have only some repetition templates in the saṁyutta, and are defined in the Aṅguttara (AN 5.14).
The indriyas (together with the balas) came to be included in the 37 bodhipakkhiyadhammā, and form the heart of the Indriya Saṁyutta, where they are defined as follows (SN 48.8, SN 48.9, SN 48.10):
Faith (saddhā)
: Faith in the Buddha's awakening.
Energy (viriya)
: The effort to give up the bad and develop the good.
Mindfulness (sati)
: Recollection of things said and done long ago, and the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Immersion (samādhi)
: Unification of mind based on letting-go; further defined as the four absorptions (jhānas).
Wisdom (paññā)
: Understanding impermanence and the four noble truths.
By beginning with faith (saddhā), the text introduces a quality not explicitly mentioned in the earlier sets. In Buddhism, faith is essential. In traditional Buddhist lands to this day, the quiet yet steadfast faith and devotion to the Buddha and his teachings is ever-present, expressed through offerings of flowers, through grace and humility in the presence of the sacred, or uplifting recollection of the Buddha's words. It is an emotional quality, often paired with pema, "affection". But the Buddha explicitly rejected blind or "baseless faith" (MN 95:13: amūlikā saddhā) and urged his followers to develop a "grounded faith" (MN 47:16: ākāravatī saddhā) based on careful and critical inquiry.
This is a faith that is akin to the confidence and trust that a scientist needs when relying on the findings and theories of others in their field. It is essential in order to get anywhere; but at the same time, it is completely provisional. If there is anything that is contradicted by the evidence, it should be rejected. And once you have seen the truth for yourself, there is no need for faith, as pointed out by Venerable Sāriputta in SN 48.44.
Following the pattern we have seen in previous sets of qualities, the mention of faith aligns the faculties with the progress of one following the Gradual Training. First, one hears the teaching and gains faith, then one goes forth and applies energy in practice, undertaking mindfulness meditation, realizing the absorptions and the wisdom into impermanence that follows on from them. At this point, a practitioner goes beyond simple belief or reasoned argument and sees the truth for themselves. Their faith is described as aveccappasāda, "experiential" or "confirmed" confidence. The word avecca literally means "having undergone". It is only at this point that faith is unshakable.
Many suttas on the five faculties are built along the same kinds of patterns and templates as the saṁyuttas on the noble eightfold path or the awakening factors. But in two related respects they are quite distinctive. And both of these distinctive features stem from the root sense of indriya as "potency" or "potential".
The first of these two features is the use of the faculties to grade practitioners. One who truly understands the faculties is a stream-enterer (SN 48.2, SN 48.3), while one who, based on this understanding, completely lets go is a perfected one (SN 48.4, SN 48.5). This grading of practitioners based on their development of the faculties is extended in more detail in a further series of discourses (SN 48.12--18, SN 48.24).
So while, in one sense, we all have these faculties within us as a hidden potential, they do not manifest their strength until empowered by the path. Once that happens, at the moment of stream-entry, they are as unstoppable as Indra on a dragon-slaying rampage.
To understand the second distinctive feature, recall that in these saṁyuttas we are dealing with the path, the fourth of the noble truths, which is "to be developed" (bhāvetabba). And while the Indriya Saṁyutta, like other saṁyuttas on the path, does indeed speak of the "development of the faculties", a series of suttas also speaks of understanding the faculties in light of the four noble truths (SN 48.2--7). Normally such phrasing is found in discourses dealing with the first noble truth, such as those on the aggregates or sense fields, which are "to be fully understood". Here the texts are blurring the distinction between the first and fourth noble truths. To be sure, this is not unique; we have already noted that a couple of discourses on satipaṭṭhāna do a similar thing differently. But it is unusual, and certainly the emphasis is unique.
There is nothing doctrinally difficult about this; after all, the path is conditioned (AN 4.34), and all conditioned things are suffering. But the Buddha usually spoke of the path in glowingly positive terms, not about its suffering and drawbacks.
Once again, this makes sense when we consider the faculties as inner potentials, as something that we already possess in a latent form to one degree or another. In understanding the faculties we are understanding who we are and who we might become.
This idea that an indriya is a potency or ability or strength possessed by a person is further developed in the remainder of the saṁyutta, which introduces a series of faculties beyond the basic five. Together with the five faculties, these make up a list of 22 faculties, which became a standard set in the Abhidhamma (see Vb 5). Here they are in the Abhidhamma sequence:
The six sense faculties (SN 48.25).
Three biological faculties: femininity, masculinity, and vitality (SN 48.22).
Five kinds of feeling as faculties (SN 48.31).
The five spiritual faculties.
Three faculties relating to stages of awakening (SN 48.23).
Senses, feelings, and even biological attributes, are things that everyone possesses. They must be understood as part of conditioned reality, and hence suffering, but they can be harnessed to empower the spiritual path.
SN 51: Linked Discourses on the Bases for Psychic Power
We have learned that the terms indriya and bala, which we translate as "faculty" and "power" were Vedic terms closely associated with the divine might of the war-god Indra. The current saṁyutta deals with iddhi, another Vedic term with a similar meaning of "success, power, potency". Note that the Pali iddhi is identical in meaning with two Vedic terms, siddhi and ṛddhi, but formally it is derived from the latter. Pāda literally means "foot", and since iddhipāda is defined as the "path or practice to gaining iddhi" (SN 51.27), it's tempting to maintain the metaphor by speaking of the "four footsteps to psychic power".
Iddhis may refer to various kinds of success, potency, or power, but in this context, they consist of various astonishing feats of psychic power or superpowers. Such feats have a long and colorful history in India. In the Vedas, as we have seen, they originated in the legendary military prowess of the gods, to which mortals aspired with the aid of stimulants. As the soma vanished, it seems, other means of transcending normal human and physical limits were sought. Ascetics undertook punishing mortifications (tapas), torturing their bodies in search of superpowers. While some pre-Buddhist religious practitioners---notably those of the Jains and the Upaniṣads---had set themselves more lofty and worthy goals than mere powers, there remained many for whom spiritual practice was a means to these decidedly worldly ends.
The modern cultural fascination with superheroes shows that this is not bound to a specific cultural time or place. It is about the very human longing for transcendence and transformation, becoming other, becoming more. Superheroes display many of the same kinds of powers talked about in the Buddhist and other ancient Indian texts: mind-reading, enhanced senses, the ability to control the elements or to multiply one's form, to fly in the sky and even through space (SN 51.11). And the means by which powers are gained remain similar to the pre-Buddhist traditions: they may be of divine or alien origin; or derived from a drug or chemical agent; or the outcome of enduring trials and suffering.
Dispensing with these methods, however, the Buddha said that superpowers are gained through pure mental development or meditation. The focus shifted from the powers themselves to the means for attaining them; which, it turns out, also happens to be the path to awakening. The various powers extend or enhance ordinary human abilities, and they may be developed in the same way as any other ability is developed: by practice.
Despite their frequent mention in Buddhist texts, psychic powers are notably omitted when it comes to the really important things. They are side-effects of the spiritual path, things that may be fun and of some worth as preliminary exercises, but far from the true goal (see SN 12.70). The Buddha had a decidedly ambiguous attitude to powers, especially when they were shown off. He forbade the monastics from displaying them publicly, saying monks who make such displays were like a woman who shows her private parts for a cheap coin (Kd 15:8.2). Displays of psychic powers are moreover criticized because they seem like mere magic (DN 11:5, AN 3.60). And the possession of superpowers was by no means a sign of genuine spiritual attainment, for even Devadatta, the Buddha's arch-nemesis, was said to have attained them (Kd 17:1.4).
None of this addresses the question of whether such powers are real. The suttas assume throughout that they are, and there is no reason to think this does not reflect the Buddha's views. Traditional Buddhism has always accepted the reality of experiences and powers beyond the normal, and Buddhist cultures are full of anecdotes and stories about such events. Rigorous studies, however, are harder to come by. The extraordinary Irreducible Mind, a sustained critique of reductionist theories of mind, assembles hundreds of studies into various kinds of extraordinary phenomena. While a reasonable person may well remain skeptical, it seems there is a significant body of evidence in support of such things as mind-reading or recollection of past lives. The ability to fly or to touch the sun remain, sadly, unattested.
Normally in the suttas the term iddhi is used for a specific set of psychic powers, which primarily exhibit mastery over the physical realm (SN 51.19, etc.). These are typically included within a broader set of six "direct knowledges" (abhiññā), which are also mentioned in this saṁyutta (SN 51.11). The final one of these is the ending of defilements and rebirth, the true goal of Buddhist practice.
As to the substance of the iddhipādas, there are four basic terms:
Enthusiasm (chanda)
: This is one of the most common words for "desire". While not formally mentioned as an item in the other lists of the bodhipakkhiyadhammā, it appears in the formula for the four right efforts. It is the desire to do good, to practice, to escape suffering.
Energy (viriya)
: This is the single most common factor among the 37 bodhipakkhiyadhammā. However, in the bases for psychic power it receives special emphasis as it is not only one of the factors, but also qualifies each of the factors.
Mind (citta)
: Thought, idea, resolve, or awareness (see below).
Inquiry (vīmaṁsā)
: Inquiry or investigation into the Dhamma, but especially into what obstructs meditation and what helps it. In this context, it is not too far in meaning from "curiosity".
Curiously enough, though the word citta has a wide range of meanings, it is not clearly defined in this context. Even the Abhidhamma and commentaries offer little more than the usual list of synonyms for "mind" (Vb 9). Normally in the context of the path, the mind is "to be developed" (see SN 51.9) and such "development of mind" (cittabhāvanā) is a term for samādhi and the path to it. Accordingly, citta falls between the energy and wisdom factors, in the place normally occupied by samādhi and mindfulness, and is said to be developed in the normal way of samādhi (see SN 51.11). And samādhi itself, like energy, is constantly emphasized as essential to this practice at every point.
However, citta is also the thought or intention that gets you to your destination (SN 51.15). In line with this, one gains samādhi by relying on citta (SN 51.13), which suggests that citta cannot be exactly identical with samādhi.
Perhaps the term citta was used here precisely because of its breadth of meaning. It encompasses the "thought" of the Dhamma, of practice, or of the goal; the "idea" one has in mind that leads one on; the "resolve" that keeps attention focused; the growing "awareness" as the goal comes into view; and the purified "consciousness" of deep meditation. In this way citta here covers the same ground as it does as one of the four satipaṭṭhānas: it refers to the mental state with which one develops the path, including, but not limited to, states of samādhi.
The four bases are almost always presented in a stock formula that consists of a long compound, the meaning of which is explained at SN 51.13. Each of the four qualities may be relied on to develop deep unification of mind, or samādhi. This process involves making an active effort, defined in terms of the four right efforts. Thus each of the iddhipādas consists of these three aspects:
1. One of the four qualities.
2. The meditative immersion that results.
3. The effort required.
At SN 51.20 we find the most detailed explanation of how these are applied in practice. This sutta brings in several practices familiar from elsewhere in the suttas, such as the contemplation of the 31 parts of the body. While most of these are straightforward, there is a somewhat obscure Pali idiom that begs a little clarification. That is the phrase "as before, so after; as after, so before" (yathā pure tathā pacchā, yathā pacchā tathā pure), called the "perception of continuity" (pacchāpuresaññā). Similar phrases are found in several places in the context of meditation (Thag 6.4, SN 47.10, AN 7.61, AN 3.90). In the Vinaya, the same phrase is used to emphasize that the status of a mendicant remains unchanged. In meditation, it points to the need for constant and consistent effort in maintaining one's focus. As part of a series of related idioms---as above, so below; as by day, so by night; as this is, so is that---it indicates how the process of meditation moves from diversity and differentiation towards unity and oneness.
When first encountering the bases for psychic power, students are often puzzled by an apparent paradox. Desire, so we're told, is the cause of suffering, yet here we are supposed to develop it. This problem is addressed directly in SN 51.15, where Ānanda explains to the brahmin Uṇṇābha that the spiritual path is lived to give up desire, which is accomplished by developing the four bases of psychic power. But Uṇṇābha protests, for desire is itself one of the four bases, and desire cannot be given up using desire. Ānanda resolves the contradiction with the simile of a man walking to a park. Before setting out, one has the desire, the energy, the idea, or the curiosity to reach the park. But when you get there, those things vanish. In the same way, the desire or enthusiasm to reach the goal of spiritual practice carries you to the goal, but once there it is no longer needed.