..续本文上一页onfidence and belief but are lacking in wisdom, may be very good at samadhi but they may not have much insight. They see only one side of everything, and simply follow that. They don”t reflect. This is blind faith. In Buddhism we call this Saddha adhimokkha, blind faith. They have faith all right but it”s not born of wisdom. But they don”t see this at the time, they believe they have wisdom, so they don”t see where they are wrong.

　　Therefore they teach about the Five Powers (Bala): Saddha, viriya, sati, samadhi, pañña. Saddha is conviction; viriya is diligent effort; sati is recollection; samadhi is fixedness of mind; pañña is all-embracing knowledge. Don”t say that pañña is simply knowledge -- pañña is all-embracing, consummate knowledge.

　　The wise have given these five steps to us so that we can link them, firstly as an object of study, then as a gauge to compare to the state of our practice as it is. For example, saddha, conviction. Do we have conviction, have we developed it yet

　　 Viriya: do we have diligent effort or not

　　 Is our effort right or is it wrong

　　 We must consider this. Everybody has some sort of effort, but does our effort contain wisdom or not

　　Sati is the same. Even a cat has sati. When it sees a mouse, sati is there. The cat”s eyes stare fixedly at the mouse. This is the sati of a cat. Everybody has sati, animals have it, delinquents have it, sages have it.

　　Samadhi, fixedness of mind -- everybody has this as well. A cat has it when its mind is fixed on grabbing the mouse and eating it. It has fixed intent. That sati of the cat”s is sati of a sort; samadhi, fixed intent on what it is doing, is also there. Pañña, knowledge, like that of human beings. It knows as an animal knows, it has enough knowledge to catch mice for food.

　　These five things are called powers. Have these Five Powers arisen from Right View, sammaditthi, or not

　　 Saddha, viriya, sati, samadhi, pañña -- have these arisen from Right View

　　 What is Right View

　　 What is our standard for gauging Right View

　　 We must clearly understand this.

　　Right View is the understanding that all these things are uncertain. Therefore the Buddha and all the Noble Ones don”t hold fast to them. They hold, but not fast. They don”t let that holding become an identity. The holding which doesn”t lead to becoming is that which isn”t tainted with desire. Without seeking to become this or that there is simply the practice itself. When you hold on to a particular thing is there enjoyment, or is there displeasure

　　 If there is pleasure, do you hold on to that pleasure

　　 If there is dislike, do you hold on to that dislike

　　Some views can be used as principles for gauging our practice more accurately. Such as knowing such views as that one is better than others, or equal to others, or more foolish than others, as all wrong views. We may feel these things but we also know them with wisdom, that they simply arise and cease. Seeing that we are better than others is not right; seeing that we are equal to others is not right; seeing that we are inferior to others is not right.

　　The right view is the one that cuts through all of this. So where do we go to

　　 If we think we are better than others, pride arises. It”s there but we don”t see it. If we think we are equal to others, we fail to show respect and humility at the proper times. If we think we are inferior to others we get depressed, thinking we are inferior, born under a bad sign and so on. We are still clinging to the Five Khandhas, [57] it”s all simply becoming and birth.

　　This is one standard for gauging ourselves by. Another one is: if we encounter a pleasant experience we feel happy, if we encounter a bad experience we are unhappy. Are we …

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