The Five Mental faculties of a meditator are saddhã, vîriya, sati, samãdhi, and paññã. These five are known as Pañcindriyã ('panca' means five, 'indriya' means faculties) as well as Pañcabala (Five Mental Powers).
1. Saddhã means faith through right understanding of Dhamma.
2. Vîriya means strenuous effort or energy.
3. Sati means continuous, constant and sustained mindfulness.
4. Samãdhi means deep concentration.
5. Paññã means wisdom, insight and enlightenment.
For a meditator, these five mental faculties must be strong, powerful and balanced as stated in the VISUDDHI MAGGA. Saddhã must be firm and unwavering vîriya must be powerful and strong, sati must be sharp and paññã must be penetrating.
BALANCING THE MENTAL FACULTIES
To make these five faculties strong, powerful and balanced, there are nine guidelines which a meditator must follow. If these faculties are strong but they are not in balance, a meditator cannot attain insight, enlightenment and the cessation of suffering. Saddhã (faith) must be in balance with paññã (wisdom), and samãdhi (concentration) must be in balance with vîriya (effort or energy). The main mental faculty, Sati (mindfulness), need not be in balance with any faculties; it must be uninterrupted, constant and sustained.
If saddhã is weak and paññã is stronger, a meditator may analyse his experience in the course of meditation. While experiencing a mental or physical process, he may analyse it, especially if he has a wide knowledge of Dhamma. When he does so, this analytical knowledge impedes his concentration, causing it be broken or weakened.
In Vipassana meditation, there is no room for reflection, analysing, logical reasoning or philosophical thinking which are not in accordance with the right understanding of the natural process of mental and physical phenomena. When a dhamma is not rightly penetrated, comprehende or realised, a meditator's faith may be lessened or disbelief develop in the doctrine as a result of his analytical knowledge of the Dhamma or experience. Only after he has completed the practice of meditation and experienced enlightenment, should he analyse it in any way. He will then have unwavering confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sanghã because of his experiential knowledge.
If a meditator believes in the Buddha and his doctrine then his wisdom or insight knowledge is in balance with firm faith (saddhã). He can then proceed with his practice without the disturbance of analytical knowledge or reasoning, or philosophical thinking. Some meditators want to display their knowledge of Buddhism or Dhamma. They, therefore, sometimes analyse what they experience in their meditation and talk about something which is contrary to dhamma. According to the Visuddhi magga, saddhã (faith) must be in balance with paññã (wisdom, insight knowledge) and vice versa.
However, the contemplation of the abdominal movement is very straightforward to those who have learnt the meditation technique from the Buddhist scriptures. I accepted the technique as true and correct because I knew that the abdominal movement is air element (vãyo-dhãtu), and the other three elements: fire element (tejo-dhãtu), water element (apo-dhãtu) and earth element (pathavi-dhãtu) are also included in the abdominal movement. As we can contemplate the four elements, this technique must be correct because it is in conformity with the chapter, DHÃTUMANASIKÃRA (contemplation of elements) in the discourse of MAHA SATIPATTHANA SUTTÃ.
If paññã (wisdom) is weak and saddhã (faith) is strong, then a meditator may be credulous or gullible. If he is either as he will tend to easily believe in any theory or doctrine. He may fall into a doctrine or theory which leads him down the wrong path. Therefore, saddhã must be in balance with paññã, knowledge or wisdom. And in this way, the faculty of faith (saddhindriya) and wisdom (paññindriya) must be in balance.
Then again, samãdhi (concentration) and vîriya (energy) must also be in balance. If vîriya is more powerful and stronger than samãdhi, you cannot concentrate well on the object of meditation. The commentary says:
If vîriya is stronger than samãdhi, a meditator's mind will become distracted and restless (uddhacca).
In the beginning of the practice his concentration is usually weak and the mind often wanders. So, he should follow the mind and watch it as it is. If a meditator is enthusiastic for the achievement of insight, he may put too must effort in his practice, thereby causing the mind to become distracted and restless. Effort must be kept in balance with concentration.
If concentration is too strong and effort is too weak, then the concentration changes into sloth and torpor or sleepiness (thina-middha).
So concentration must be kept in balance with effort (vîriya). When concentration is deep, insight will unfold naturally and you will be able to clearly realise the true nature of mind-body processes (nama and rupa).
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