Eastbay Dhamma 2022-2023
The Five Faculties and Five Powers

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“Mendicants, there are these five powers. What five? The powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. These are the five powers. The Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant who develops and cultivates the five powers slants, slopes, and inclines to Nibbana." - SN 50.1

 Absorptions
In this 8-part series, we will explore the five faculties (indriya) and five powers (bala) as found in the 37 bodhipakkhiyā dhammas or wings to awakening.

The sessions will be 2-hours in length and will include meditation, investigation of our topic relying on the suttas, and discussion. We will orient our exploration towards practice and development of the path.

Currently, we will be meeting on Zoom. As the group feels comfortable to do so and we find a space, we will start to meet in person in the Oakland/Berkeley area. At that time, we will also continue with Zoom, using a hybrid model, so everyone can be included.

There will be 8 sessions in this series from 2pm-4pm on 2nd Saturdays. Here are the dates:
September 10
October 15
November 12
(No meeting in December)
January 14
February 11
March 11
April 8
May 13

To Join Zoom Meeting you can simply click the link on our homepage or use this link, ID and password:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89713120971?pwd=dXJVZnpCSVNNZXZOOHhUMW5Gc2IzZz09

Meeting ID: 897 1312 0971
Passcode: 902160

Hints on finding suttas on a topic

November 12 - Readings on Energy
The home work for this meeting is to read passages from the suttas on energy as a faculty (vīriyindriyaṁ), as a power (vīriyabalaṁ), as an enlightenment factor (vīriyasambojjhaṅgaṁ), or as the Four Right Efforts (cattārome sammappadhāne) and bring one or two suttas or excerpts that you find helpful or inspiring to our zoom meeting on Saturday, November 12.

October 15 - Readings on Faith

This month our focus is on saddhindriya, the faculty of faith, which can also be translated as conviction or confidence. The Buddha said this faculty can be seen in stream entry. So, the homework for this meeting is to read suttas on stream entry found in the Nikayas and bring one or two that you find inspiring or interesting or confusing to our meeting on October 15.

In order to find suttas, I recommend going to the Reading Faithfully website where you can find the links to purchase translations by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi and others from Wisdom Publishing or you can download Bhante Sujato's translations which are free.

Bhante Sujato's translations can be downloaded in a variety of formats. I personally use the pdf versions because I find it easy to search them in Adobe Acrobat, but you might find other formats easier for you.

If you have problems downloading the sutta books, please contact me at santussika@karunabv.org.

September 10 - Readings

AN 5.15  Should be Seen https://suttacentral.net/sn48.8/en/sujato 
SN 55:2  Culmination of the Holy Life  https://suttacentral.net/sn55.2/en/sujato
SN 49.1  Right Efforts Ganges  https://suttacentral.net/sn49.1/en/sujato
SN 47.1  In Ambapālī’s Wood  https://suttacentral.net/sn47.1/en/sujato
SN 53.1  Absorptions https://suttacentral.net/sn53.1/en/sujato
SN 56.1  Immersion  https://suttacentral.net/sn56.1/en/sujato