A growing note about various discourses that have been central to my understanding and practice.
When I first started looking directly at the suttas about faith, I found SN 48.24, which lists the five faculties and then says one ‘who has completed and fulfilled these five faculties is an arahant’, listing the various stages of awakening that one would attain if their faculties were progressively weaker than an arahant.
The same faculties are also listed as the Five Powers, in AN 5.15, but further detail is given.
Dependent Liberation
SN 12.23 The Upanisa Sutta, ‘Proximate Cause’
In the Upanisa Sutta, about which Bhikkhu Bodhi wrote a brilliant essay called ‘Transcendental Dependent Arising’, the Buddha presents a classic formula of dependent arising (or dependent origination) as a chain of causality for suffering ~ followed by a less-known formula of transcendental dependent arising (or dependent liberation), which is a set of instructions for how to transcend suffering. dependent-liberation
The Five Faculties
SN 48.50 Āpaṇa Sutta, ‘At Āpaṇa’
Translated as the Saddhā Sutta by Thanissaro, this discourse presents the Five Faculties as cyclical or graduated/gradual, and beginning with faith: faith begets energy, which begets mindfulness … concentration … wisdom, and I get from reading this sutta that: a) one can expect insight to arise somewhat naturally from samādhi, though of course we shouldn’t neglect wisdom practices, and b) the cycle returns to faith after wisdom, completing (and re-starting) the cycle as one’s faith inspires effort, again and again, etc, so the Faculties are gradual in that one conditions the next/others, and cyclical in that the ‘fifth’ faculty, wisdom, inspires faith, the ‘first’ faculty, although like all of these things they are not as linear as ‘first’ and ‘fifth’ would suggest.
| Translations | Title(s) | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Sujato | At Āpaṇa | The Buddha asks Sāriputta whether a noble disciple doubts the Buddha. Not only does he have faith, replies Sāriputta, but the other faculties each come to be developed in turn. |
on Saving the World
AN 10.95, Uttiyasutta ‘With Uttiya’
AN 10.95, Uttiya Sutta, ‘With Uttiya’
‘Wise Attention, ‘Yoniso Manasikara’
Pascal’s Wager
MN 60 Apaṇṇaka Sutta, ‘A Safe Bet’
In MN 60, the Buddha claims, very explicitly, “Since there actually is another world, one who holds the view ‘there is no other world’ has wrong view.” In lieu of having our own direct experience of this metaphysical truth claim, it is advised in MN 60 that a wise or skilful person would assume it to be true, just in case - if it isn’t true and there is actually no other world, then at least one’s wholesome motivation yields the fruit of happiness and welfare in this lifetime. Such an argument seems to be essentially consistent with Pascal’s Wager. I find these grounds to be sufficient for choosing to believe in rebirth, so this aspect, at least, of skilful view, gets a green stamp for epistemic status.
Discerning Dhamma from Adhamma
AN 3.65 Kesamutti Sutta, ‘To the Kālāmas’
A teaching should be taken as dhamma if it promotes conduct that is
wholesome, blameless, censured by the wise, and conducive to happiness and welfare.
Popularly known as the Kalama Sutta, this sutta is essential reading for Don’t Believe What I Think and an understanding of saddhā because it helps us discern what is the dhamma, but it also inspires me because it shows the Buddha trusted our discernment - even pushes us into discernment because the only recourse remaining in the sutta is to put any teaching to the test. It also helps use discern which complementary practices are dhamma aligned: we don’t take Byron Katie’s work as dhamma-aligned because of her charisma; we test the Work and see if it reduces suffering.
Read more here.
Canki Sutta
In the Caṅkī Sutta, Kapathika/Bharadvaja asks the Buddha what he thinks of the brahmanic teachings, and the Buddha walks him through understanding that the brahmins did not teach from direct experience of knowing and seeing the truth.