Abhidhamma Papers |
Concentration is in fact the mental factor one-pointedness (ekaggata) and occurs in every consciousness. Effort occurs in all thoughts except for sixteen which do not have the roots of attachment, aversion and wrong knowing or their opposites, but are mostly mechanical results of past thoughts. Confidence, mindfulness and wisdom are skilful (kusala) mental factors, the first two being present in every skilful consciousness and the last one in every skilful consciousness which is rooted in knowledge.
In our daily lives we may experience skilful states when we practice meditation, discipline and giving (bhavana, sila, dana) or when we study the dhamma with correct attention. When these states occur it is possible to experience and investigate something of the nature of these accompanying five mental factors.
In unskilful (akusala) states, concentration seems to fix the mind on one object after another. The mind is easily distracted. Sometimes it becomes too strongly fixed on its object and is aware of nothing else. Although it is the same mental factor, one-pointedness, which appears in skilful states, there is the feeling that right concentration keeps consciousness on its object correctly and does not readily allow distraction. Similarly, there seems to be a 'rightness' or 'correctness' about the quality of effort which occurs with skilful thought. This effort seems to fill the mind and body with energy and thus allows further skilful states to occur, apparently more easily. When skilful states are maintained for any length of time, effort is being properly employed. This is not the case when one is operating without real effort or with incorrect effort and it is said that then 'the work obtains mastery over the person'. No concrete results will appear and unskilfulness will quickly reappear.
Confidence in the teacher and the truth of the teaching, mindfulness and wisdom can never occur when there is unskilfulness present. For then there is agitation (uddhacca), wrong knowing (avijja) and sometimes doubt (vicikiccha). Confidence as spoken of in abhidhamma must be experienced to be understood. It is not blind faith, nor can it be intellectualized. When we are experiencing a skilful state we are often aware of pleasant feelings. When this is so, confidence is easier to identify. Even the physical body becomes straight and firm and lighter.
We can never experience skilful states of mind unless we have mindfulness. The clarity which is present at this time and which aids our correct experience of the state, is mindfulness. It is mindfulness which then points to the best way of maintaining the state. When it occurs together with wisdom we see clearly the nature of the state, and out of this may arise insight into the three marks of existence.
Not every skilful state is accompanied by wisdom, and so effort should be particularly aimed at those which do have wisdom as a root, as this is the way out of suffering. Whenever wisdom is present in our thoughts we are weakening ignorance at least at the level of sila. That is to say, it may still be present as a latent tendency but will not occur to mar our thoughts or actions while the skilful state remains. How can we know if our skilful thoughts have wisdom? We can know wisdom as a calmness and certainty about what we have experienced. If we show signs of fixed opinions or are uncertain about the state, then it is extremely unlikely that wisdom has been present.
This, then, is how these five mental factors occur in skilful states before the jhanas are developed. As they acquire a greater strength and intensity in our thoughts, they are referred to as the five faculties. When this happens they can be directed towards and balanced for jhana. At this level these faculties are able to control their opposites, i.e.
confidence controls doubtIt is also said that the jhana factors further intensify the faculties. So faith becomes strong when the mind and body are energized (with piti) and pervaded by happiness (sukha). Wisdom needs application of the mind to the object (vitakka) and examination of that object (vicara) to comprehend its object fully, when jhana is first being developed. For effort, mindfulness and concentration to become intensified the energization of piti is required.
effort controls laziness
mindfulness controls heedlessness
concentration controls agitation
wisdom controls wrong knowing
The culmination of the development of these five faculties comes when they operate as powers which can completely destroy their opposites. They become fully operative as powers along with the thirty-two other factors of enlightenment when enlightenment itself occurs.
Sheila
This led to discussion of confidence, which arises when there is no preference for any particular course of action. The self then steps aside and there is a free acceptance of whatever might happen. Another mental factor, that of commitment (adhimokkha), is another aspect of this - it allows the mind to let go and confidence is allowed to arise. A trust in dhamma is then involved as a willingness to let go and allow natural processes to occur. This may also take the form of a feeling for the course of action which is right for one.
Confidence is often more likely to arise in difficult situations where a number of demands are placed on one. For example, if someone is in a crisis and asks for help, they are often willing to apply a great deal of effort into following the advice they are given, without any hesitation or wavering. This is an example of confidence, and indeed it is often the confidence that arises at times of crisis and difficulty which is easiest to remember and to recognize in retrospect. Usually, of course, one does not ask: 'Is this confidence?' when a particular state arises, and often the doubt involved in the very act of posing the question is enough to make the quality disappear. When the circumstances are difficult, for example, the mind slips back into aversion, which is directly opposed to confidence. If, however, confidence arises when there is also pleasant feeling, the situation is rather different. The act of asking: 'Is this confidence?' may still be unskilful, but this time the mind is likely to revert to attachment to the pleasant feeling rather than to aversion. Attachment is not so directly opposed to confidence as is aversion, and the confidence may have been sufficiently established for it to return afterwards. As pointed out in paragraph five, it may then be easier to identify confidence when it arises in pleasant rather than in difficult conditions.
A final point worth noting is the relationship between the five faculties and the jhanas. In meditation practice, the jhanas are usually seen as a goal, but in fact, unskilful as well as skilful jhanas are possible. Jhana has the function of crystallizing certain tendencies, but this may be two-edged: there are both skilful and unskilful crystallizations. So in meditation practice we are concerned with the development and balancing of the five faculties so that the mind will tend to skilful jhana.
