Hello friends! To mods I hope this doesn’t cross the line of asking about personal practice. If so please do as you need to. I’m more interested in understanding what is meant in the text Majjhima Nikaya 77. Here is a quote From Venerable Bodhi’s translation:
The Four Bases for Spiritual Power
“Again, Udāyin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the four bases for spiritual power. Here a bhikkhu develops the basis for spiritual power consisting in concentration due to zeal and determined striving. He develops the basis for spiritual power consisting in concentration due to energy and determined striving. He develops the basis for spiritual power consisting in concentration due to purity of mind and determined striving. He develops the basis for spiritual power consisting in concentration due to investigation and determined striving. And thereby many disciples of mine abide having reached the consummation and perfection of direct knowledge.
The Five Faculties
“Again, Udāyin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to develop the five spiritual faculties. Here a bhikkhu develops the faculty of faith, which leads to peace, leads to enlightenment. He develops the faculty of energy…the faculty of mindfulness… the faculty of concentration…the faculty of wisdom, which leads to peace, leads to enlightenment. And thereby many disciples of mine abide having reached the consummation and perfection of direct knowledge.
This great sutta gives an abundant list of ways to develop the wholesome, but I’m left a little confused on the practical application of these trainings. How does one develop say these concentrations that are the basis for spiritual power? And so on.
Hi. In my opinion, the above impression naturally arising from reading the sutta is the problem. The suttas list many dhammas but, often in actual practice, these dhammas are not discerned unless one really looks only after practice is well-developed & only after one has read such suttas. In other words, there is not really an “abundant list of ways”. In reality, there is only one way. The problem with the suttas is they can make what more simple sound much more complex than it is.
This is why schools such as Zen arose; to take the complexity away. But then Zen can become over-simplified; to the point of ‘stupid-simple’ or insufficient.
In reality, there is only one concentration being developed. Here, when concentration is being developed, there is exists “zeal/enthusiasm/devotion/love” for what you are doing; which generates energy/effort for what you are doing; which gives rise to conscientiousness towards what you are doing; which gives rise to always analyzing, investigating, giving attention-to-detail to what you are doing; to ensure you are doing it in the right way.
Compare it to being a dedicated musician or sportsperson. You do music or sport out of love. This love of what you do naturally arouses energy for what you do. Having energy, you apply your mind to what you do. Then you are always investigating what you do, to ensure you are doing to it well and also investigating how you can improve.
This is all the Four Bases of Spiritual Power are about. At least in Thailand, a common translation is the Four Roads to Success. These dhammas are merely the four underlying mental qualities required to successfully develop any endeavor, including concentration.
In summary, all the sutta is saying is to successfully develop concentration; there must be zeal (chanda), energy (viriya), conscientiousness (citta) & examination/quality control (vimansa) towards this activity of developing concentration. In other words, if there is no zeal or no deep incentive/motivation, concentration won’t develop.
Kind regards
Note:
AN 6.55 is an excellent example of a monk using too much zeal & effort and the Buddha tells the monk to examine his activity to make it more balanced.
SN 51.20 is a sutta about ensuring the Four Bases of Spiritual Powers are balanced.
Hey thanks for your response. I’m glad you showed me this book I have looked around it a bit and it looks really great. I can’t wait to plunge into it further!
