5 bala and 5 indriya, how are they different? How about 4 padhana and 4 iddhi pada?

Q & A
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SN 48.43 is the only EBT I know of that attempts to explain:
(bodhi)

“Suppose, bhikkhus, there is a river which slants, slopes, and inclines towards the east, with an island in the middle. There is a method of exposition by means of which that river could be considered to have one stream, but there is a method of exposition by means of which it could be considered to have two streams. [220]

6“And what is the method of exposition by means of which that river could be considered to have one stream? Taking into account the water to the east of the island and the water to its west—this is the method of exposition by means of which that river could be considered to have one stream.

7“And what is the method of exposition by means of which that river could be considered to have two streams? Taking into account the water to the north of the island and the water to the south—this is the method of exposition by means of which that river could be considered to have two streams.

8“So too, bhikkhus, that which is the faculty of faith is the power of faith … that which is the power of wisdom is the faculty of wisdom.

5bal and 5ind are defined exactly the same way, and that passage above shows how they could be viewed as two, but are actually from another perspective the same thing.

But the question we have is, why did the Buddha talk about it like it might be two separate things?

From teachers of THOX (orthodox Theravada, following Vism. and Commentaries), I’ve heard that the 5 indriya are what we start off with, and when you become highly skilled with them, then you have 5 bala (powers). That makes sense, but there’s no EBT to confirm that explanation that I know iof. I assume some commentary must say this? Anyone have a citation?

B. Bodhi says, in one of his translation footnotes I think, that although the explanation above makes sense, we should not be quick to assume that’s the real reason.

I came across an interesting passage in DSS (dhyana samadhi sutra) recently. They also said that 5 bala are what you get when you become highly skilled with 5 ind. Then, they also said the 4 ip (iddhi pada) are what you get when you master the 4 right exertions (equivalent to 4 aspects of right effort). Anyone know of Theravada commentary that says anything similar about the 4ip and 4pdh?

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c.f. Dhammasangani (1st book of Abhidhamma)

Good intro, that touches on these points, is Nyanaponika Thera’s “Abhidhamma Studies – buddhist explorations of consciousness & time”

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here’s an excerpt from nyanaponika’s abhidhamma studies. This section follows immediately after the section of indriya, which he translates as “controlling faculties”, and notes that Indriya is derived from Indra, king of the devas.

  1. THE POWERS (bala, F24–30)

We have already remarked how the faculty of controlling presupposes a certain intensity of the mental factors concerned. We have seen how the function of intensifying is performed by the factors of absorption, and we have given examples of this in the particular case of the five spiritual faculties. The resultant intensity of those faculties is described and emphasized by repeating them in the list under the name of powers (bala).
The commentarial explanation (e.g., at Asl 124) says that the five factors corresponding to the spiritual faculties, and also the two additional constituents of this group, namely moral shame (hiri) and moral dread (ottappa), are called “powers” because they are “unshakable” (akampiya) by their opposites; thus, for example, faith is not shaken by faithlessness (or unbelief). But in view of the fact that all these psychological statements refer in the first instance only to the duration of a single moment of consciousness, and since the “control” or “power” won at that moment may well be lost in the next, it is better and less ambitious to render the word akampiya by “firm.” So we may say that these seven factors are powers of firm preponderance. In the case of the five spiritual faculties, this signifies that the “control” exercised by them has gained a degree of stability.
It should be borne in mind that the five spiritual faculties and the five spiritual powers are simply two different aspects of the same qualities. How their nature is basically one, though their functions are different, was illustrated by the Buddha in the following simile: If there was a river flowing eastward with an island in the midst of it, the stream could be regarded as one when seen in its flow at the eastern and western sides of the island, but as two from the island’s northern and southern sides. In the same way should the identity of the spiritual faculties and powers be understood (SN V 219–20).