Five Spiritual Faculties with Gil Fronsdal

So once someone asked when is a good time to be mindful and the answer was: when is the best alternative, when is the best option, one of the phenomena that happens when we start practicing mindfulness, we start to discover that sometimes is often the best. option and it becomes the better option the more we practice it and part of the reason is that as we practice mindfulness we start to see what our mental stream is doing and sometimes occasionally our mental current is not as high quality, it is not doing something. that could even be harmful, it could even be a drag, what happens there, the issues, the attitudes and those are our circumstances, mindfulness is a better option and what mindfulness does is it somehow disrupts the freedom of our kind of unhealthy things.

The mind just flows perpetuating itself freely, which if we are not aware, it can and if unhealthy Minds, ruminations, thoughts and ideas go freely, that actually reinforces itself to become stronger and stronger, but Being aware is considered always useful. be something healthy and beneficial for the mind because it is a way to, to some extent, get out of that mental stream and see it, and the more clarity we see, oh, that's not a good way to think, the clearer it is, the more clarity there is. Without judgment. and the criticism is just, oh look, that's not right, we're interrupting that mental stream to a certain point, we're stepping out of it for a moment and then as we're doing that, you're asking what's the best time to be mindful.

I think it's right. now because it is the best alternative it is a better option sometimes we are thinking about something that is not necessarily harmful to ourselves or others but we have thought about it ten thousand times and uh and maybe mindfulness is a better option uh maybe uh um and as we, as we move out of the mindstream into mindfulness, we begin to discover over time that there's something else available to us that's not just redirecting the mindstream, like in my case, I redirect mine, sometimes I'll be thinking about something, I tell you I know it's not useful to think about this or you know I'm giving a talk later that day and I start thinking I don't know anything, nothing to relate to the talk and it's not that nice, They are not bad thoughts. but it's like I don't know ridiculous thoughts and uh and I said you know I think I think it's better to think about what to talk about when I come to IMC so my mind goes there for a while and that seems better sometimes you can redirect the mind and um and uh, and I often do that over the course of the day and it doesn't hold anything back, it's not, you know, Pollyanish to think about anything else, it just seems very important. -In fact and direct and of course I would choose the best option, but as mindfulness becomes stronger, if there is something else that is possible to discover and it is that there are all kinds of wonderful states, abilities or wonderful qualities. things can arise inside that have nothing to do with our mental stream, what we are thinking and what we are worried about, that there are these wonderful inner qualities that bubble up almost as if mindfulness makes space for it and that you cannot have space for this if you keep thinking and you may have a habit of thinking the most beautiful, noble, inspiring and healthy thoughts that anyone has ever had in the history of humanity and you have a real history of doing it all day long and you are just proud. and engaged and inspired by what you're thinking, then you just want to keep thinking about it, so do that if you want.

However, that is against, you are constantly filling space with those thoughts and therefore there is no space inside for something else to arise. develop and as we get the sense that mindfulness creates a space or something beautiful happening within us, the question of when is the best time to be mindful takes on a completely different tone, there is more evidence, there is more understanding, oh , now is the best time, because even the most beautiful Thoughts, I mean, this will be the great American novel or you know whatever, but there are even better things, more wonderful things and there are the qualities and abilities that we have inside, that You know, when they get strong, some people might want to. describe them as divine and maybe that's what the Buddha did when he called

five

particular states that we have inside by the name of the Indian god Indra and then Indra of God or Celestial or something like that and and if you don't understand a feeling of this kind of divine association with these

five

qualities that are your own personal qualities that you have, um in the usual English translation of these, which is called the five

faculties

, so five

faculties

seem nice, but they're not so bland, oh yeah.

I have five faculties, you know, you know, but if you have five divinities within, I mean, what you know, some of you might now be alarmed or running because, anyway, these five Divine qualities like what is that and um, these five are sometimes also called five strengths. something that is also not obtained from the word faculties and the difference between these two words, India and the powers, Bala is simply linguistic according to the Buddha, it is not the same, so these divine qualities are also wonderful. strengths or powers that we can carry within us, then what are they?

Let me first name them for those of you many of you know what they are. I want to continue this analogy with mindfulness so that as we become aware, we discover what our mental flow is and sometimes we see that it is something that is not healthy for us, something that is not so beneficial, maybe even harmful to us. ourselves, sometimes it's just a waste of time and sometimes it's really wonderful to do it and the thoughts refer to the questions we have. We're inspiring, it inspires us, it's really healthy and seeing those options clearly gives us the opportunity to choose which of those options we follow and it makes a difference if you see those three options in front of you, you know?

See three foods in front of you, one is poisonous, one is tasteless, and the other is so satisfying. A dish like maybe it's like your mother's favorite dish growing up or something that represents parental love or something that nourishes you in so many other ways. that only with food because of the love you associate with it, so poison Blend or this food that transmits love, which would you choose? Well, you know, I think not many people would use poison, but the thing about love and when we choose it. I love food, food that is associated with the kind of maternal or paternal care or grandma care or something like that, then something different happens inside of us something inspiring, something pleasant, oh this was good.

I feel like I remember something wonderful from my childhood and to this day I still remember when I have cheese on toast. I remember, you know, I remember my grandmother and her and her love, it's like wow and um, so the same thing can happen internally as we watch the Smorgasburg Borg in different mental states where my different thoughts flow and we have inside if you see that always You are in a state of mind of complaint, which is like entering the territory of poison, in reality if you are always full of hatred, hostile and full of resentment.

You may not want to believe this, but it is a kind of poison to our hearts or minds. If you are constantly greedy, it is a kind of poison to get caught in. That causes all of these things to do negative things to our hearts, our minds, and our minds. body uh generosity love wisdom goodness they do something completely different and some of these positive states can really feed us in wonderful ways and now it's for our benefit so as we practice mindfulness we begin to see the range of possibilities of what our the mind can be at a given moment and first it happens maybe in meditation in meditation you start to see you know you're you start to think about um I don't know what you know it could be lottery tickets and you're kind of like trying to guess how calculate, you know what are the most likely numbers to win the lottery next time and what are the lucky numbers, and in a 40-minute meditation, after 20 minutes, you realize that you have 20 minutes.

I've been thinking. about the lottery numbers and finally it is like that. You realize it's a waste of time. I don't think I'll do that again. Let me switch and focus on my breathing and you focus on your breathing and it feels good and relaxing. Once the next 20 minutes pass, you feel calm, relaxed and calm, and boy, it's much better to have done that instead of spending the 40 minutes of meditation thinking about lottery numbers, so maybe that's an example Silly, but I think meditators while they meditate. You begin to see what kind of thinking is not useful.

Sometimes they find that there are no good thoughts in meditation. They have much better things to do than keep thinking. Simply let the Mind settle and calm down. So in meditation we begin to choose what we choose. We pick up what we perpetuate and what we let go of, and after a while we develop some confidence not only that we can do that, but also that there are better options than spending the entire meditation guessing lottery numbers or whatever. As we turn there are better options and we start to have confidence in that, so it is not after 20 minutes that we change gears, it may be that after a few minutes we change gears.

I know better, not only are we confident in it, we are In fact, I am inspired by the other possibility of meditating, these other mental states that can happen, these other directions that we can go and, after a while, because of the familiarity With the territory of meditation, there is not only trust. in a different thing that we do some kind some people without thinking about it rely on resentment rely on complaining rely on complaining all kinds of things because what the Mind does most of the time, but we come to meditation, we begin to see that The usual mental currents that we live in are not so helpful and then we start to trust in letting go of them and trust in something else and when after a while you are inspired by this, how lucky I am to have this practice that allows me to change the current of thought.

Mind or do something else to have a practice that seems to calm the Mind to a certain extent and I have access to something else, we could even say that we begin to have faith in this book, this potential and this possibility, and over time this sense of Faith or confidence in this becomes stronger and stronger until it becomes something, it becomes divine, it becomes a strength that we have and it makes a big difference to have this confidence in the practice because sometimes the practice is difficult to do, sometimes Sometimes our mental currents are very challenging and there are all the lawyers of the mind who will argue that against you you have to, you have to know how to plan the revenge that you are obliged to take as a human being, don't you deserve it or have the right to it or what? whatever, but are you so confident? in what can happen when we do not get caught in these harmful mental currents, that faith and trust will override the lawyers and choose the healthy direction so that this trust, this faith that we have in practice, can become stronger and stronger. and it becomes something that feels really inspiring and wonderful to have and maybe divine in a way as we begin to see more clearly the choices that the mind can make, so we put in the effort to do it and that effort to choose the Healthy Mind. flowing. o healthy states of mind o choosing mindfulness, if it involves some kind of effort, it involves choice, as we repeatedly make that effort, even as the effort of sitting in meditation day after day as we sit and meditate, the effort of returning to the breathing. return to breathing at some point that effort factor becomes stronger at some point that effort factor and mindfulness together begin to give rise to a certain type of Vitality that begins to carry us forward some people would call it Chi, this type of Vitality inner that's there and for some of you it's probably commonplace to feel like maybe for some of us it's if you start a new exercise practice, you know, maybe biking or running or something like that, and at first it's very difficult and the body screams and says stop, but as you do it, you practice it and you get conditioned, sometimes you start to feel this wonderful vitality and joy as you do the exercise for a while until you get tired or something, but you know There is something that generates vitality in you and when you stop doing it, you know.

At the end of the exercise, the Vitality remains for a while, it is really great, the same can happen with the mental practice of mindfulness, that there is a Vitality that is unleashed, that opens, is released or awakens, and that Vitality is released. called Viria in poly, it's a and then there's, as we practice mindfulness, mindfulness is one of the things that we choose to keep doing, we see the mind wander and we come back and become aware over time that the ability to be mindful becomes second nature, much like we are strengthening a muscle and be aware, some of you may have had this experience if you do a good meditation session at home or here andthen for the next few minutes after the meditation or maybe longer than that. to feel like you are really here, you are really here, you notice that you feel fresh, it feels like you are not automatically distracting yourself again and getting busy, you go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and it feels like you are there in a relaxed and calm way and you are very present in the experience of breakfast and making it, then it is quiet and maybe even the kitchen glows a little because you are paying attention, you know that you are there in a pleasant way and So the awareness that builds up during meditation persists after the meditation is over until you catch up and then maybe you start reading the news and that's all it takes and, um, but also awareness can become an awareness of strength when it has a kind of a Your own life is there and present to you, available to you without having to do a lot of work to achieve it, it is just there as a kind of natural quality and you have to protect it without being distracted, but it is a kind of stronger, it becomes, it is something divine, it's a fantastic ability and then as we become less and less distracted, what we're overcoming is being fragmented, distracted, we start to come together and be, oh, something like that. wholeheartedly in whatever we are doing or just being complete in ourselves by being here right now, which is samadhi, which is what in English is called concentration, but samadhi the state of not being distracted, a feeling as beautiful as of being able to wash the dishes and you are wholehearted, everything is there as if this were the only thing we can do, the most valuable thing we can do is be there washing the dishes, what a rare thing in many people in our distracted world how many people wash the dishes and it will automatically turn on the radio, a television program to receive information and receive the latest news or make something work and it will automatically go through your mind and start going through the list of pending tasks that they are going to do and what they are worried and they are hardly present to wash the dishes there is no samadhi of washing the dishes but there is samadhi of washing the dishes which is a pleasure wow because the alternative is to be distracted the alternative is to be fragmented and divided between what we do and how we learn to be aware and mindfulness is stronger and we choose to be present more and more, there is a unification process that continues and we learned how beautiful it is and it results that unified feeling of being completely present in who you are.

What you're doing right now can be divine or

spiritual

, it's very simple, that's a

spiritual

state in Buddhism and, um, and there can be a concentration of force that can become so strong that sometimes it's difficult to get rid of it. and you take it with you. More than just carrying calm with you, you carry with you a unified state as you go through the day and then as you continue to practice mindfulness and you start to see all those things, you start to see what is healthy and what is not. It is healthy, the mind flows when you see that you have faith. and confidence by seeing the power of mindfulness by seeing the power of unification then wisdom arises and one of the key forms of wisdom is to truly appreciate how valuable it is to make the decision to go in the healthy direction and avoid the harmful . see how it benefits you, you see how much it changes when you do it, you see how healthy it is and so the wisdom becomes stronger and stronger too and you see that you have this wisdom that you carry with you everywhere and it helps you make these decisions that keeps you these spiritual qualities presence, so now I have gone through all five, so there is confidence, there is vitality, there is awareness, there is a unification and there is wisdom, these can be strengths that we carry with us, they are spiritual or divine. qualities that we present for the Buddha these five qualities are part of the description of what changes in a person as they mature in Buddhist practice these five qualities become stronger and stronger and stronger someone is fully awakened has all of these five qualities for the maximum possible strength, so if you want to know what it is, you know what it is like to be fully enlightened, they have a really strong, fully strengthened faith, trust in vitality, consciousness of vitality, uh, unification and this vector of wisdom, and um, and the Buddha, he talks about these.

It's not so much something that you practice but something that emerges from your practice and this is what I was saying before what is the best you know when is the best time to practice mindfulness when is the best we know when we should practice mindfulness when is the best time to practice mindfulness? the best option we begin to see that there are other options that are better than what we are doing and one of them is to practice mindfulness and awareness that begins to allow these five qualities to grow, develop and emerge and, as they are There, let's settle down. in them to recognize them and make space for them to recognize them and be in them and not take them for granted but be present for it, so um uh, it doesn't say practice faith, it doesn't say practice vitality.

He doesn't say practice awareness, he doesn't say practice unification or practice wisdom, we do Buddhism, the practice of recognizing what is happening in our mental stream, the practice of choosing what is healthy, making the effort to do so, so that we make the effort to let go. our distractions there are things that we do but there is also what they do to us when we do them and these five spiritual qualities, the powers are these things that are born within us and they grow and develop over time and um and it's fantastic, so the practice facilitates The practice supports the emergence of these things and they become, you know, you know, represent, define or characterize some of the strong spiritual states that we can live in when we do Buddhist practice.

I don't know if these five states are inspiring for you, but the alternative to those five, hopefully, is the opposite of inspiring. I mean, there are so many that you know you have no confidence in or are worse. Do you know that they have a lot of doubts about your abilities or about anything? stuck in the skepticism around all of this and you know that it's not so helpful to not have vitality as it is to actually have your vitality drained, something that much of our society these days supports in some of the ways we participate. our technology and our society and beliefs and politics and everything can be exhausting and you are not aware be careful the next time you drive your car you will have an accident or many accidents happen all kinds of things we are not aware of not being Unified to be fragmented , broken and scattered is not good for us and not to be wise to be foolish probably most of us do not want to be foolish and, you know, it is generally not a useful thing in Buddhism, there are no sinners in Buddhism, some religions They have these big, important categories, sinners and saints, the closest Buddhism gets to that is that there are fools and then there are wise men, so I don't know, maybe you don't know yet.

I like those dichotomies, but um, but uh, the thing about being a fool is that you can still become wise and um, whereas in some religions where you know the sin, you know a sinner, sometimes there's not much help, but we can always, you know, become wise. In this practice, then, I came up with a wonderful term that represents a very important concept in early Buddhism, but translate, it's my translation, deep generative attention, deep generative attention, there is a deep way to be present, to really be present in our lives. conscious here that allows the emergence of the generation of wonderful qualities within us, these Divine things that can come somehow within us we have these capacities and for today's talk they are the five faculties, the five spiritual Divine Divine States, the five forces of trust, the unification of the consciousness of vitality and wisdom, what a wonderful thing and if we, if these are there to support us, if we want them to support us, it is good to recognize them and they are operating all the time and the most There are likely many activities that you do in your daily life where these five are present and that encourage you to consider where in your life they are operating, perhaps without you knowing it, it could be that doing the dishes you never thought it was a spiritual practice, but you actually have confidence that you can do it. wash your dishes you are confident you can wash your dishes well without breaking anything you are confident you can wash the dishes in such a way that it feels wonderful to have the whole heart to just wash the dishes and not be distracted by 10,000 things while you do it they are confident in that and you are willing to put effort into new dishes you know that without some effort the dishes are not washed they are not cleaned so you are putting effort into it but it is the effort you are making is the best effort you can make there is a beautiful effort there is vitality and a way to wash dishes only this inspires you or you and patients this idea of ​​washing dishes is to wash them as quickly as you can finish and You're kind of like you know how to multitask and do, but you know how you know how it's discover a nourishing effort when washing the dishes, what kind of awareness has to be present so that you can wash the dishes that has this nourishing effort coming. with confidence Is there any unconditional dedication with which you can wash the dishes that is as unconditional as doing activities that you love to do and that you do with all your heart because you love them and are very interested?

Can you surrender to something that is one of the things? I learned about Zen practice being in Zen monasteries. I learned this wonderful art of giving wholeheartedly to whatever you are doing and because I did that and sometimes in the monastery, especially when I worked in the kitchen, there I worked in the kitchen. for a couple of hours and then I would go to meditate in the meditation room, I would literally walk from the kitchen to meditate and sit down and as I did my work in the kitchen with all my heart and completely for the activity, when I sat down to meditate already I was focused and my mind was no longer distracted, boom, it was fantastic, so washing the dishes with that enthusiasm and maybe some of you already do it and then the wisdom to understand that it makes a difference how you wash the dishes if what you want It is simply to evoke and live. from the like when Buddhist in Buddhist terminology and Buddhist guidance from a spiritual place and allow spirituality to flow and move through you the Divine or the strengths that come through you, it makes a difference how you wash the dishes and whether is true for dishes is probably true for many of the things you do during the day how you drive how you talk to your friends how you do your job how you know probably almost everything these five spiritual qualities are at play and recognize them learn to recognize them learn to make space for them make them grow and develop so that this deep generative attention but there is a tension that gives this deep generative capacity to do its work which is not our doing is not like the ego which is doing something and we are allowing For something deep to arise within us, this is part of the gift of this practice, so I hope it made sense and I hope even more than it makes sense.

I hope this inspires you to explore what I do. I said today in your daily life and see if you can discover these five qualities in your meditation practice and your mindfulness practices that you do throughout the day, but also in the activities of your day, because if you do that in your life daily. life, then you don't have to go to a monastery like I did, so thank you, we have about five minutes before we stop and maybe get ready, get ready for the potluck if any of you would like to ask a question or make a comment. or a testimonial about this um please hi my name is Seoul um yeah I just have a question about being mindful because um I like throughout the day I'm forced to multitask.

I didn't put my hearing aid on, so if you could pick it up it's like this, yeah, okay, can you hear me now much slower? Yeah, okay, so for my job, I have to do a lot of multitasking, so when I'm in the meeting I'm supposed to reply to slack messages and read. via email so this is something that is expected for my role so yes I'm just wondering what's the best way to deal with so many queries throughout the day and make sure I also fulfill my job duties . I'm not sure what to say for you, so what I say might be a miss, but what I learned was that sometimes it is possible to multitask beautifully.

I was in the monastery, I was a dishwasher and you know, and I did it for a long time. of washing dishes in the dishwasher and it was like multitasking, you know, it was like a dance, turning and turning and doing this and that and what I learned and then I also worked as a fast food cook Fest uh in a restaurant after the monastery where I did multiple tasks. Abundantly and what I learned was um uh I don't have any resistance to let go resistance to let go you know, just surrender to it completely and um and so I don't know if that works for what you do.but don't resist just give yourself fully to the multitasking that you have to do as if um you were a soccer player who has to multitask because on the field they have to pay attention to so many things um so I don't know if this looks at your resistance, that's what I did and that's what I found and let go of my resistance, thank you behind you, good morning Gill, good morning everyone.

I was wondering if you could talk about the process of feeling like you're really riding someone's wave and these beautiful Awakening factors and I always think of my practice like I'm surfing the wave and then I slip and life happens and I get caught up in the wave. wake and just hit by The Reef. Is this a common occurrence in other people's practice? It's not a bother, so you have someone, you're caught in the wave of samadhi and then what comes, maybe their mind. or life and then you trip or hit something and then you get caught in the wave and you fall, are you falling?

Yeah, well, you just get back on the surfboard and paddle. Yeah, okay, so this is a very common thing for everyone else. What else can you do? That's it, well, there's something else you can do that's important. You know, your life falls apart and you lose your practice or your someone, your mindfulness and certainly you start over, you start over, but what can you also do, which is important, is spend some time reflecting on what happened? and learn from it, and maybe there are things you need to learn, maybe there are reasons why you keep falling, maybe it's not like that, maybe it turns out that the waves are gentle, they're gentle. just I'm not saying it's your situation but maybe some of you know someone who keeps falling off their surfboard because not because of the waves but because they are trying to show off to people on the beach and after they said well, why do I keep falling, what's happening, oh, I'm not paying attention to the waves, I'm paying attention to the beautiful people on the beach and um and so we learn, okay, I have to stop paying attention. people on the beach so you want to learn too so the more you let go of life the more helpful it is to step back and spend some time reflecting on it and see what happened there and what kind of changes what your contribution is to that then and what kind of behavioral changes are needed and if someone always falls off their surfboard, you know, into the waves, maybe what they need is a bigger surfboard or maybe they should stop surfing. the last one, please, you know, do you know when?

They go easy, it's natural to be aware for me, but when I'm surrounded by, let's talk about a political figure where there's Hate Division and all these things coming at me or I see it written on Facebook or something like that, it's very difficult for me. I stay conscious. I just don't know how to approach it. I want you to know, post some positive things, but then you get attacked and I don't want to back away from this kind of hate, so there's a lot of it. Things contribute to that, but based on today's The Talk, I would like to say that it is because one of the reasons you get carried away is because you lack confidence in something healthy if you lack confidence in something healthy if you had confidence in Love no matter what it is, like loving everything, there always has to be love, if there is no love, it is not worth it and when there is all this hate, anger and fear of doing that it comes from politicians or when they are doing crazy things , um uh if you have confidence that love should always be in everything then, if you have confidence in that, when you realize that you get angry, you're upset, wait a minute, wait a minute.

I really believe in love, that's really what's useful or I really believe. in peace I really believe in non-reactivity, that's where I really want to focus, come with me, I don't want to live in a world where I will be triggered and lose my commitment to love or lose my commitment to peace or non-reactivity, so I encourage you to that what you have to do is reflect on the deepest values ​​that you have and find a way to have more confidence in them so that when these things come to you you are prepared. because it's you, you're established in that, in your confidence, wow, thank you, okay, one more time, but then we'll stop, so you started off by saying that when you get into areas where you feel anger and negativity, what you need to say is that The best option or is it the best, so what do you do?

If you go in the direction of anger and all these feelings come up, like maybe it's a relationship with someone and you know those are powerful feelings. You are absolutely so that's a whole and I don't want to suppress them. I mean, it's not like someone cuts me off kind of stuff, yeah, yeah, so I think a big part of practicing mindfulness is actually learning to be present. for difficult emotions and how to be present in them without further reactivity and how to make space for them without giving in to them, without participating in them or acting through them, so if you sometimes see that meditation is a fantastic place where the volcano of Anger can flow, but you don't participate and you just allow it to flow, but be really honest with yourself, just don't do it, don't keep telling the stories of why you're angry, don't revisit the stories. just be present oh this is anger this is a volcano of energy this is what is happening this is what is happening this is what is happening let's feel it in the body this is what is happening let me open in the body and feel all this what's happening this is what's happening and you know, so we start to see more and more clearly what's happening while we're angry and we make space for it as we're angry, but in this meditation posture we're safe. , we're not going to lash out at someone we're not going to say something we later regret we're not going to hit someone because you're not supposed to move when you meditate and uh and uh and then while we do this and we practice With this and being present We begin to understand more and more deeply what is happening and what the internal triggers for this are and not a few people, for example with anger, discover that anger is actually a superficial phenomenon, a symptom of something deeper.

And then being able to sit present and aware and look and observe our anger and start to see in the cracks of it that I actually feel very hurt or very sad, that is more primal and once we realize the sadness and the pain . then it's a completely different game and that also needs our attention and the fact that we are angry starts to diminish because it's not that important compared to something much more important, so mindfulness of emotions is a big part of what we do. We do in this practice here and learning its instructions, learning to be with it is one of the great gifts of this practice and it is really essential because, of course, in this life that we live we will have all kinds of difficulties. emotions and um and then the kind of confidence and vitality that I talked about today uh the five faculties that confidence acquires in faith become really strong when we learn to be aware and through these difficult mental states difficult mental states that we can have and learn, we have learned oh, I don't have to give in, I can allow it, I can find a way to the other side, wow, this is fantastic, of course, I will choose to be aware instead of giving in to anger. or whatever, does it make enough sense?

Great, thank you, okay, so thank you everyone and that's why we have this potluck, everyone is welcome to come and since we have a potluck it will take a few minutes for some people to come. set up maybe the group of people can leave now and those of you who want to stay if you want to stay here and just head over to one or two people near you and say hello because just to welcome them and