The Five Strengths

The Five Strengths

By the Sea“There are these five strengths. Which five? Strength of conviction, strength of persistence, strength of mindfulness, strength of concentration, and strength of discernment. These are the five strengths.

“Just as the River Ganges flows to the east, slopes to the east, inclines to the east, in the same way when a monk develops and pursues the five strengths, he flows to Unbinding, slopes to Unbinding, inclines to Unbinding.

“And how is it that when a monk develops and pursues the five strengths, he flows… slopes… inclines to Unbinding?

“There is the case where the monk develops strength of conviction dependent on seclusion, dependent on dispassion, dependent on cessation, resulting in letting go. He develops strength of persistence… mindfulness… concentration… discernment dependent on seclusion… dispassion… cessation, resulting in letting go.

“This is how a monk, when developing and pursuing the five strengths, flows… slopes… inclines to Unbinding.

Samyutta Nikaya, 50.1

Source: “Wings to Awakening: Part II”, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff). Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/wings/part2.html . [“The Five Strengths” was excerpted from the original article, cited above, by Alexander Peck.]

©1996 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

The text of this page (“Wings to Awakening: Part II”, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. Sixth revised edition, 2011. Transcribed from a file provided by the author. Last revised for Access to Insight on 30 November 2013.