The Buddha spoke of The Five Faculties as trackable mental factors to aid in liberation.
These qualities can be developed, tracked and, tuned to your meditation practices. When developed, they are able to keep negative states from arising, allowing for your practice to develop and deepen with ease.
The Five Faculties are;-
Faith(saddha); controls doubt
Energy(virya); controls laziness
Mindfulness(sati); controls heedlessness
Concentration(samadhi); controls agitation
Wisdom(panna); controls wrong knowing
If your Faith, or Inspiration is low, it becomes hard to sit. Reading a Dharma Book, listening to a podcast, hearing a teacher, or even meeting someone inspirational will aid in your determination and resolve in sitting.
If your Energy is low, sitting turns into sleeping. Energy is needed to apply yourself to the practice, and keep focused. To develop more energy, sit up straighter and scan/count/track with more vigor or speed. If there’s too much energy, slow down your scan/count or tracking.
If your Mindfulness is low, it’s hard to see in practice. To develop mindfulness, try looking with deeper penetration, or try developing more continuous flow.
If your Concentration is low, everything becomes distracting. With the development of focus, agitations wash over, and calm is never lost. A good way to develop concentration is through memorising.
When the other four faculties develop, Wisdom is the result.
I have found that ‘checking in’ a few times during a sitting, I’ve been able to correct myself by using these techniques, allowing for more focused, deeper, concentrated, peaceful practice; The aim of practice. Give them a try next sit and let me know how they work for you.
(talk inspired by Gil Fronsdal, via Zencast. photo)
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