The Five Spiritual Powers (Plus One) | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

Perhaps you have heard about
the five kinds of energy.

The five powers.

And the first power, the first source
of energy is faith.

But this is better translated
as confidence and trust.

As understood by the
teaching of Patriarch Lin Chi:

"You who don't have
enough confidence in yourself,

the confidence that you have
the capacity of becoming a Buddha,

the capacity of transformation and healing
and you are seeking these things outside.

You who do not have enough
confidence in yourself."

So faith should be translated as
confidence rather than faith.

Because faith is, you have faith
on something, someone else outside.

'La confiance' and not 'la foi'.

And when you have learned to
have faith in you, you are very strong.

In the Gospel, it is said that if
you have faith, you can

move a mountain.

That's a poetic way of describing that energy.

And if you have put into the practice,
the teaching of the Buddha,

and if you've found out that
the practice is effective,

it can bring you mindfulness,
concentration, and joy.

And then faith,
confidence is born from this.

Not from something people say,

Faith, confidence, not only in ideas,

but in the outcome of your practice.

When you practice walking,
and if you succeed in mindful walking,

and you see that you are light,
you are solid, you are free,

And your confidence is born from
that kind of experience.

So this is not a superstition,

this is not relying on something
outside, on someone outside of yourself.

And this can bring a lot of happiness.
If you don't have faith,

if you don't have that energy
of confidence, you suffer.

Even the Buddha is inside the Dharma,
taking refuge in the Buddha in myself,

taking refuge in the Dharma in
myself, in the Sangha in myself.

It's very clear.

And the second source of power is ()
which means diligence.

Diligence.

Your daily practice

bring about transformation.

Diligence in the teaching of
the Buddha is very concrete.

There are concrete things
you do in your daily life,

and if you do it every day,
that is called diligence.

Suppose this is our consciousness, and
this is the lower part of our consciousness

called "Stored Consciousness".

It is like the land, the soil, the ground
with many seeds preserved in it.

In our stored consciousness, there is a seed
of joy, of forgiveness, of mindfulness,

of concentration, of insight, of
equanimity. But there are seeds of anger,

of hate, of despair, and so on.

And all these seeds are kept by stored
consciousness, and one of the functions

of the store consciousness
is to maintain all these kinds of seeds.

In Upper Hamlet, we have
the seeds of Arugula in the ground.

If you walk the land and you water the plant
will--they're preserved by the seed

We also have the seed of understanding,
compassion, forgiveness in us.

We cannot say that I don't
have these seeds in me,

the seed of awakening, understanding,
compassion, are always in us.

And they are part of the Buddha nature.
The Buddha nature is in it.

The problem is how to help
this seed to manifest.

You need to practice of watering,

you water not the negative seeds, like
the seed of anger, confusion,

but you water the seeds of mindfulness,
concentration, compassion, and so on.

And every time this seed is watered,
it manifests itself on

upper level of consciousness
called mind consciousness.

So mind consciousness is like a living room,

and stored consciousness
is like the basement.

The things you don't like to
be in the living room,

so you put them all in
your stored consciousness.

In the cave.

And if we water the seed
of joy, of compassion,

that seed will manifest itself on the
level of mind consciousness

and it can make the living
room beautiful, brightened.

When you read an article, when you
listen to a conversation,

you are watering these seeds. So be aware,

The article you read may
touch--kick the seed of violence,

the seed of despair, and they
will manifest here.

And diligence here means the practice
of selective watering.

The first step is that the negative
seed in stored consciousness,

if they have not arise, they
have not manifested,

keep them down there.
Don't give them a chance.

That's the first step.

So in your daily life, be careful
not to allow these seeds,

the chance to manifest.

You don't suppress, but you just
don't give them a chance.

That is why you have to
practice 'yoniso manasikara'.

It means appropriate attention.

'Manasikara' means attention,

'Yoniso' means appropriate.

Appropriate attention.

When people invite the bell, and you
pay attention to the bell,

so the seed of mindfulness in you is touched
and you begin to breathe in and out mindfully

and paying attention to the sound
of the bell is appropriate attention.

In your practice center, in your family,

you should have sound, sight,
that can help you touch

the whole something within yourself.

And try not to expose the sight and
the sound that will touch

the negative seed of craving,
the seed of anger in you.

This is the first practice.

And you need intelligence in
order to practice that.

You have your partner, you have
your children, you have your friends.

Protect them, create a kind of
environment where they

don't touch the things that bring about
the watering of the negative seeds.

So the fifth mindfulness training is about

mindful consumption, and the kind of
consumption that will not touch

these seeds of violence, of craving,
and despair in us.

So the negative seed, if they have not
arise, do your best to keep them there,

don't give them a chance.

The second step of diligence is if it happens,

that it has been touched
and it has manifested,

the negative ones--with intelligence,
help them to go home

to this place.

And there are many ways you can do that.

It's like you have a compact disk,
you have taken the wrong compact disk,

and when you play, it's not pleasant.

So you stop and you change the CD.

And when the new CD is played,
now it's very pleasant.

So the Buddha, in his time, he did
not have the compact disk.

So he used an image of a peg,
a changing peg.

A carpenter, in order to link the two
piece of wood, use a peg.

And when the peg is not good,
it cannot stand.

Then you can use a new peg and
drive the old peg out.

Change, change your idea, change your
object of mind consciousness.

If an idea is negative, full of craving or anger,

you can use your mindful breathing and touch

another seed that is wholesome
here and invite it to come up.

And if it is interesting enough, then
the other seed will go down.

But it should be more interesting,
otherwise you'll be fighting.

So with skillfulness, with intelligence,

you practice the second step in
order to change the situation,

helping the negative thing to go down here,
and helping the positive thing to come up.

And when the positive things are up here,
the living room is occupied.

The notions for the rest to come.

That is about the negative seed.

Now we come to the third
which is positive seeds.

Positive, wholesome seeds
in stored consciousness,

if they have not manifest,
help them to manifest.

Read something, say something,
watch something,

then go water the seed of compassion,
of loving kindness in you,

so that they go manifest
here, that's the first step.

If you come to the practice center,
that is exactly what to do.

You have come in order to expose
your stored consciousness,

so that the Dharma talk, the bell,
the sight of brother and sisters, walking

touch the seed of peace and
happiness and calm in you.

So that is the third step.

You have to organize your life in such
a way that the good seeds in you

be touched several times a day,
so that they can manifest themselves

on the level of mind consciousness.

And that can be done very quickly.

You invite a wonderful guest
to be in the living room,

that will change the whole situation.

And the fourth step,

is when the root mental formation
has already manifest

try to keep them as long as
possible in your living room.

It is so pleasant to have

a friend, a good friend sit in the living room.

If there is rain then you can decide to
remind your friend, it's raining outside

so stay and have another cup of tea.

You try to persuade your good
friend to stay as long as possible.

Because according to Buddhist psychology,
the longer the mental formation stay here,

the stronger it will grow at the base.

This applies to the positive as
well as the negative.

If you entertain the craving
here for five minutes,

and the seed of craving here
have five minutes in order to grow.

Dangerous

That is why you are advised by Buddha
to help this to go back,

to go home as soon as possible.

And to invite the good thing to come up,
and when the good thing has come up,

try to preserve them here as long as possible

because if you give it time for
it to continue to be here,

It's base down here will be strengthened.

So the practice is very clear, very precise.

And when you use your intelligence,
your skillfulness

to organize your practice, this is
called true diligence,

and true diligence can bring a lot of joy,

a lot of happiness to you
and to your beloved ones.

So this confidence, faith, diligence,

and the third source of power
you already know, this is mindfulness.

The fourth is concentration,

and the fifth is insight.

Because the insight, insight is the
fruit of mindfulness and concentration.

And when you have the insight,
insight has the power of liberating you.

It is by ignorance that we suffer,

but when we begin to touch the insight, you
have the insight touched in our true nature.

There is no longer any fear,
there is a compassion.

There is acceptance, there is tolerance.

And that is why insight is a
tremendous source of happiness.

The other day we learned
that we can bring in

the feeling of joy and happiness by letting go.

Letting go.

And then the second source of
happiness and joy is mindfulness.

The third is concentration,

and today we add three others:

faith, diligence, and insight.

Let us explore the five powers in order to

to create the source,
the foundation for happiness.

And happiness is here, it's not made
of the five kinds of craving,

like wealth, fame, power, sex, and so on.

It is made with the practice of the five powers.

[Gong]

'Bala' means power.

This is the Buddha's teaching
of the five powers.

And now as the student of the Buddha,
you may create a sixth power.

You add the practice of letting go,
and you have six powers.

Letting go is a power.

And this is also the teaching of the
Buddha, five powers, six powers.

Six powers are the tremendous source
of joy and happiness and liberation.

Made in Deer Park, six powers.