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Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourse 4.152

The Power of Faith

Saddhābalasutta — Indriyavagga — the sixteenth chapter of the Fours

Setting
None stated; the Indriyavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
AN 4.151 with one word replaced
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
The paired treatment of faculties and powers is standard across the early collections; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — identical to the discourse before it except for one word, and the word is the whole content

Why this discourse

Faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion — the same four, now called powers instead of faculties. In a collection that files the same material under several head-words this looks at first like another synonym-series. It is not. Indriya and bala are a technical pair, and the tradition has always taken the difference between them seriously.

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

The same four are also powers.

Faculty and power

The distinction the tradition draws is this. An indriya governs: within its own domain it is what is in charge. A bala is unshakeable: it cannot be overthrown by its opposite.

So faith as a faculty is what decides where a person commits; faith as a power is faith that doubt cannot dislodge. Energy as a faculty is what keeps a person at something; energy as a power is energy that laziness cannot break. Mindfulness against forgetfulness, immersion against distraction.

That is a commentarial formulation and should be labelled as one. The suttas give the two names and, in the great majority of cases, the same four or five items under each, without defining the difference. What the later tradition supplied is a way of accounting for why both terms exist.

What can be said from the texts alone is weaker and still useful: the collection thought the same items were worth two names, and it consistently keeps both.

Why a peyyāla is not the right description here

AN 4.141 to AN 4.145 gave one teaching under five near-synonyms for light, and this reading guide called that a filing operation. It would be easy to say the same thing here and it would be wrong.

Ābhā and pabhā are ordinary words that overlap. Indriya and bala are technical terms with separate places in the standard list of the things that lead to awakening — the five faculties and the five powers are two of the seven sets, listed separately, and a scheme that treated them as synonyms would not have kept both.

The test is whether anything elsewhere depends on the distinction, and here something does. That is the difference between a synonym-series and a genuine pair, and it is worth having a rule for, because the Aṅguttara contains a great many of both.

The three discourses that follow

AN 4.153, AN 4.154, and AN 4.155 also announce four powers, and none of them gives this list. They give: wisdom, energy, blamelessness, inclusiveness; then mindfulness, immersion, blamelessness, inclusiveness; then reflection, development, blamelessness, inclusiveness.

So bala is being used for two different things in one chapter. AN 4.152 is the power-version of the faculties. AN 4.153 to AN 4.155 are a separate set with a fixed second half.

A reader going straight through will meet four consecutive discourses that all begin ‘there are these four powers’ and give three different lists, and it is worth being told in advance rather than discovering it as a confusion.

It is also worth noticing that nothing in the text marks the change. The compilers filed everything called a set of four powers together and left the reader to sort it out.

What the second name is for, practically

Setting aside the technical question, the pairing has a use.

A quality one has is not the same as a quality one can rely on. Most people have some faith, some energy, some mindfulness, and some capacity for collection; far fewer have any of them in a form that survives contact with its opposite.

The two words name that difference. Whether or not the commentarial definition is the original one, it identifies something real, and the identification is the reason to read AN 4.151 and AN 4.152 as a pair rather than as a duplicate.

The diagnostic question changes accordingly. AN 4.151 asks whether the four are present. AN 4.152 asks what happens to each of them under pressure.

Where it sits

Second of the chapter’s ten and second of its five short filings.

Three more discourses on powers follow, and then the chapter breaks into cosmology at AN 4.156 and into its substantial run at AN 4.157.

The title given to this discourse in the Pāli is Saddhābalasutta, after its first item, which is the usual convention: a discourse takes its name from the first thing in it.

Key terms

bala — “power”, strength — in the later analysis, a quality that cannot be overthrown by its opposite.
saddhābala — “the power of faith” — faith that doubt cannot dislodge; the compound that gives this discourse its Pāli name.
bodhipakkhiyā dhammā — “things on the side of awakening” — the seven sets, in which the faculties and the powers are listed separately.
assaddhiya — “faithlessness” — the opposite faith as a power is said to be unshakeable by; not named in this discourse.
indriya — “faculty” — the governing sense, given to these same four in AN 4.151.

The text

The discourse in full: four powers, named. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

Four powers

§1“Mendicants, there are these four powers. What four? The powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, and immersion. These are the four powers.”

· · ·

Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
What four powers does this discourse name?
Correct: B. One word changed from AN 4.151.
Question 2 of 10
What distinction does the tradition draw between the two terms?
Correct: B. Faith that doubt cannot dislodge; energy that laziness cannot break.
Question 3 of 10
How does the guide label that formulation?
Correct: B. What can be said from the texts alone is weaker and still useful.
Question 4 of 10
Why is this not a synonym-series like AN 4.141 to AN 4.145?
Correct: B. A scheme treating them as synonyms would not have kept both.
Question 5 of 10
What test does the guide offer for telling the two cases apart?
Correct: B. The Aṅguttara contains a great many of both.
Question 6 of 10
What do AN 4.153 to AN 4.155 give?
Correct: B. Bala is used for two different things in one chapter.
Question 7 of 10
What marks the change in the text?
Correct: B. Worth being told in advance rather than discovering it as a confusion.
Question 8 of 10
What practical difference does the second name name?
Correct: B. Far fewer people have any of the four in a form that survives contact with its opposite.
Question 9 of 10
How does the diagnostic question change from AN 4.151 to AN 4.152?
Correct: B. The reason to read the two as a pair rather than as a duplicate.
Question 10 of 10
Why is this discourse called Saddhābalasutta?
Correct: B. The usual convention.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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