Chapter 24 - The Five Powers Flashcards
enumerate:
Five Powers
- Faith
- Diligence
- Mindfulness
- Concentration
- Insight
explain:
Faith
1st Power
6
- releases great energy
- faith in false/unreliable things makes doubt and suspicion, whereas faith from insight/understanding makes us touch beauty and reliability
- can be confidence in transformation of the practice and the teachings
- like farmers who have faith in their crops
- not blind faith
- not some belief in a set of ideas or dogmas
Diligence
2nd Power
3
- energy that brings joy into our practice
- animated with it we become truly alive
- our eyes shine, our steps become solid with it
Mindfulness
3rd Power
5
- meditation is its power plant
- gives energy to concentration and insight
- can be sitting, walking, dish-washing
- mindfulness is the plough, the hoe and the irrigation source that waters insight, we are the gardener ploughing, sowing and watering our beneficial seeds
- helps us regain the paradise we thought we had lost
Concentration
4th Power
3
- needed to look deeply and see clearly
- developed by mindfully sitting, walking, working etc
- mindfulness —>concentration —> insight and faith
Insight (or Wisdom)
5th Power
2
- ability to look deeply and see clearly
- seeing clearly we can abandon what is false —> faith —> Right Faith
What is the bonus (6th) power re: 5 Powers
?
- Capacity (or Inclusiveness)
kshanti
Five Faculties (or Bases)
- capacity to produce the Five Powers
NB: difference between producing something and having the power it generates
enumerate:
Three Kinds of Pride
- thinking I am better than the others
- …worse than the others
- …just as good as the others
How can we follow the example of the Buddha watering Ananda’s seeds?
2
- by pointing out the beautiful things in life to friends i.e. sunset, flowers etc
- all done with the energy of mindfulness
Kshitigarba
2
- goes to places of deepest suffering to bring light and laughter to others
- each sangha needs a kshitigarba :)
Boddhisattva Never-Despising
3
- could not dislike anyone knowing each of us has the capacity to become a Buddha
- “I do not dare to underestimate you. You are a future Buddha.”
- believes the seed of happiness, capacity for love and happiness is in everyone’s store consciousness
How can we help someone who feels she cannot love herself?
2
- by looking deeply into own consciousness and others’
- by helping to cultivate their seed of love
What did the Buddha say every time Mara appeared?
- “I know you my old friend”
- and every time Mara fled
What do we need to understand when we enter a well-tended garden and want to pick a fresh, beautiful rose?
2
- we have to touch some thorns
- we don’t say because there are thorns that happiness is impossible
What does Thay liken sitting firmly in the present moment to?
- sitting on a lotus
What can we understand from the self-immolation of Venerable Thich Quang Duc, who was able to sit peacefully even while the fire blazed around him?
2
- although burning, he was still sitting on a lotus
- he demonstrated the ultimate capacity: to sit peacefully in any circumstance, knowing that nothing is lost
What is it said that all sentient beings have in the Lotus Sutra?
- Buddha Nature
“A lotus for you, a Buddha to be” means what?
- I see clearly the Buddha nature in you
Aware of dormant negative internal formations and suffering, what should we do?
2
- know it is a good time to water positive seeds
- when pain arises in conscious mind, breathe mindfully and practise walking meditation
explain:
capacity, inclusiveness (kshanti)
3
- ability to be happy even when confronted with difficulties
- capacity to offer light and a sense of joy to oneself and to those around them
- even entering hell, lightening the place up with the sound of laughter
Buddha Nature is the same seed of what four things, by example?
4
- Right Mindfulness
- Insight
- Wisdom
- Right Faith
describe:
Just Sitting
2
- enjoying sitting in the present moment
- non-action
What happens once we get rid of all our unwholesome seeds?
- there’s nothing left to practise!
describe:
Five Powers
- capacity to realise the Eightfold Path, like how electricity manifests as light or heat
NB: difference between producing something and having the power it generates
