Dear Friends,
The inspiration for this month’s topic came from this description of the Five Spiritual Faculties on the Audio Dharma page for the series:
[The Buddha] emphasized that suffering is workable, that we can engage with our suffering in such a way as to be freed from it. He described five faculties that we need to develop to do so: confidence (faith), effort, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment (wisdom). These five qualities are present in varying degrees in almost every activity. They are useful in developing any skill, be it playing a musical instrument, training in a sport, or cultivating a meditative mind. The Buddha recognized these universal human capacities and taught us how to use them to develop the craft of meditation.
https://www.audiodharma.org/series/1726
For me, the description makes these five faculties accessible, rather than some esoteric practice. We already do this in our daily lives in many activities, which means we can then turn these faculties toward our meditation practice and cultivate these skills to meet the challenges and difficulties in our lives. So that will be our focus for the month.
In a talk from May 2022, on the five faculties as a group, Gil describes how the faculties might apply if one was going to go for a long bike ride. At the end of that example, he says, “you can do the exercise at almost anything you do. If you decide to bake bread or cook something at home in the kitchen, those five in some degree come into play. They come into play when we meditate.”
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/16332
So I thought for this introduction, I’d explore these five faculties in the context of baking cookies, since that’s something I can relate to.
Saddha – faith, confidence, trust
When I’m trying to decide what to bake, I have to have some sense of confidence that I can do this. This might come externally (a friend made these cookies and gave me the recipe, or the recipe has positive comments online, or I have made recipes from this cookbook before and they turned out). If it’s a recipe I have made before, this might come from my own experience. I have faith that I can do this, that the resources are trustworthy.
Viriya – effort, energy
Okay, now I need to get the ingredients and equipment together, and start mixing them. How much energy I need may vary by recipe – some are fairly delicate or need a light fluffy touch, and others need more vigorous mixing, etc.
Sati – mindfulness, awareness
I need to pay attention here, and notice what’s needed and when. I can tell you many stories of times I wasn’t so mindful when baking – and put in too much or too little of an ingredient (or simply forgot it), or didn’t set the timer, and so on! Mindfulness also helps me be more attuned to the conditions of the dough – is it too dry or too sticky, sweet enough or not.
Samadhi – concentration, collectedness, gathered
I need to have some level of focus or gathered attention on the task at hand. If a recipe is complicated and has lots of steps, I need to have more concentration on what is needed, compared to when I’m making the “world’s easiest cookies“. Likewise, doing the dishes afterwards usually doesn’t need the same level of concentration.
Panna – wisdom, discernment
How long do I mix this? How much flour do I need and should I add it all at once? What can I use instead of that ingredient I don’t have? I need to exercise some discernment to determine how to effectively bake these cookies. Some of this wisdom comes from the recipes (quantities, time, temperature). Some comes from reflection (does this make sense to me). Some comes from experience (what did or didn’t work before, and always add more chocolate chips).
I hope you get a bit of a sense of how we might already be exercising these faculties in daily life, and hopefully that will inspire some confidence in your own capacity to bring these to your meditation practice.
Reflection:
Can you think of an example where you are using these faculties?
Practice:
You can do a meditation of your choice, and as you do so, notice where these five faculties might be in play. Which seem well developed, and which could you work on?
If you want some guidance, here’s a 21 minute body scan meditation from Tara Brach:
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/62569/
I look forward to starting our exploration on saddha tomorrow!
With good wishes,
Andrea