FIVE spiritual faculties: full moon – Tuesday 10th June 2025
In one whose mind is unsteady, whose heart is not prepared with true teachings, whose faith is not matured, the fullness of wisdom will not manifest
DHAMMAPADA v. 38
We are all familiar with teachings on mindfulness. It is important to remember that the Buddha encouraged the cultivation of five spiritual faculities, not just one: trust/confidence (saddha), motivation (viriya), embodied mindfulness (sati), collectedness of attention (samadhi), and discernment (pannya). When faced with rapid change and disruption, it matters that we prepare ourselves in ways that protect and strengthen us. With a well-developed capacity for trusting in true principles there is less risk of falling into doubt and despair. If you have energy and motivation you are more likely to perceive difficulties as challenges that you can learn from, not just as problems that obstruct. When mindfulness is cultivated and embodied, you are better prepared to accurately engage with whatever your inner and outer worlds present you. Disciplined attention can help equip you with a sense of steadiness and the ability to remain focussed, not chronically distracted. When the faculty of discernment is functional, you will be more inclined to ask the right sort of questions, at the right time, in the right way, leading to clarity and balanced sensitivity.
FAITH IN HARMLESSNESS: full moon – Thursday 13th March 2025
Neither for one’s own sake nor on behalf of another does a wise person do harm – not for the sake of family, fortune or gain. Such a one is rightly called just, virtuous and wise.
DHAMMAPADA v. 84
Having faith in this principle does not mean we never feel inclined to cause harm. It might, however, mean that when such inclinations arise there is a better chance we will be honest about them. Having the principle established in our hearts has the potential to protect us from habits of heedless reactivity. If the impulse to cause harm does arise, faith in this true principle can support our accurately feeling what we feel, without becoming totally lost in the two extremes of conditioned behaviour: one, denying the impulse and pushing it down into unawareness; or two, acting out. The middle way is the way that leads to living truly responsibly.
Q: Wholesomeness Helps With Deep Obstructions
(approx. 13 minutes)15th December, 2024 KEYWORDS: Q: Self Seems To Be Growing Not Diminishing – I meditate and watch behaviour patterns and bear with my thoughts and feelings, including feeling into the belly. However I seem to become more of what was buried, and not less. There is no increased sense of freedom. The "self" even seems to have grown, not diminished by my explorations over the last 11 years of serious meditation and 31 years of some kind of commitment to it. I feel that at the core I am as strapped as I ever was. Bearing with the unbearable, the ultimate transformer, storehouse of wholesomeness, great faith, great doubt, great endurance, overly focus on suffering, Going For Refuge, surrender, compassionate caring, desire, denied pain, overwhelm, sadness, unawareness, volunteering, forget about ourselves, being an abbot, vibhava tanha, appreciative attention, willing to meet ourselves, Outshining The Sorrow.
Q: How Might Those With A Scientific Background Relate To Teachings On Rebirth?
(approx. 11 minutes) KEYWORDS:Q: "For those of us with a Western scientific back ground, some of the more metaphysical teachings of the Buddha's teachings such as rebirth are hard to make sense of. And even from the perspective of the teaching on Anatta, rebirth is hard to make sense of! Please could you give advice on how to relate to those parts of the teachings that seem to require belief in things we cannot know for ourselves and also the parts of the teachings that we plain just don’t understand.” Engage the paradox, dilemma, clinging, fear, selfless just-knowing awareness, anatta, compulsively taking sides, intelligence, not-knowing, laws of materiality, laws of consciousness, gravity, conceptual formulation, trust, study, uncertainty, greed, poison, humility, modesty, abdication, True Principles, not avoiding responsibility, dilemmas are a gift.
Q: Could You Guide Us In A Contemplation On The 5 Spiritual Faculties?
(approx. 12 minutes) KEYWORDS: "In one of your talks you ask us to contemplate on 5 spiritual faculties. You had given some ideas on faith. Could you please guide us on this too." Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Thate, indriyasamvara, hiri ottappa, basic tools, sadha, faith, fragrance, honeysuckle, floating, 3 levels of faith, viriya, energy, intensity, transformation, tedious mediocrity, interest, challenge, sati, embodied mindfulness, satipatthana sutta, gatekeeper, praise and blame, samadhi, collectedness, ceto-vimutti, discernment, mirror, self-reflective capacity, accuracy of perception, compassion, goal.