The Way of Wisdom: 5 Spiritual Faculties

Edward Conze, The Way of Wisdom: The Five Spiritual Faculties, 1993 (accesstoinsight.org); Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Part I: The Five Spiritual Faculties

Way of Wisdom (Edward Conze)

Spiritual progress depends on the emergence of five cardinal virtues — 

1. confidence (faith),
2. energy (vigor),
3. mindfulness (bare attention),
4. concentration (unification of mind), and
5. wisdom (insight).

The conduct of the ordinary worldling is governed by one's sense-based instincts and impulses. As we progress, new spiritual forces gradually take over, until in the end the five cardinal virtues dominate and shape everything we do feel and think.

These virtues are called, in Sanskrit and Pali, indriya, variously translated by "faculties," "controlling faculties," or "spiritual faculties."

• [Note 1: The word indriya is derived from the Vedic god Indra (Sakra), the ruler of the gods or "king of the devas" of two lower heavens in the ancient pantheon. Hence the word suggests the idea of dominance or control.]

The same five virtues are called the five powers (bala) if emphasis is on the fact that they are developed to the point that they are "unshakable by their opposites."

1. Confidence (Faith)

O, ye of little faith, Lisa (The Simpsons)

Confidence is called "the seed," for without it the plant of a spiritual life cannot start. Without faith one can, as a matter of fact, do nothing worthwhile at all. This is true not only of Buddhism, but of all religions, and even the pseudo-religions of modern times such as Communism and Capitalism.

And this confidence, conviction, or trust is much more than the mere "acceptance of beliefs." It requires the combination of four factors — intellectual, volitional (intentional), emotional, and social.

1. Intellectually, faith or confidence is an assent to doctrines that are not substantiated by immediately available direct factual evidence.

To be a matter of confidence, a belief must go beyond the available evidence and the believer must be willing and ready to fill in the gaps in evidence with an attitude of patient and trusting acceptance.

• [As this is not "blind faith," those gaps will fill in over time as one knows and sees to a greater degree.]

Faith in Buddhist Thailand, Sukhothai

Faith, taken in this sense, has two opposites, that is, a dull unawareness of the things that are worth believing in, and doubt or perplexity. In any kind of practice some assumptions are taken on trust and accepted on the authority of texts or teachers.

However, generally speaking, confidence/faith is regarded as only a preliminary step, as a merely provisional state.

In due course direct spiritual awareness will know that which faith took on trust, and longed to know: "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face."

There are Three Guides or Gems.

Much time must usually elapse before the virtue of wisdom has become strong enough to support a vigorous insight into the true nature of reality. Until then quite a number of doctrinal points must be taken on faith or confidence in the Three Guides or Gems: Teacher, Teaching, and successfully Taught.

What then in Buddhism are the objects of faith that practitioners place confidence in? They are essentially four: More