Balasutta — Abhiññāvagga — the twenty-sixth chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Abhiññāvagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A list of four, stated once
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
The five spiritual powers are foundational across the Nikāyas and Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this four-item version
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — short, and worth reading against the more familiar fivefold list
Why this discourse
Energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom: four powers, stated with no elaboration. Readers who know the tradition's more famous list of five spiritual powers, bala, will notice immediately what is missing here — faith — and the omission is worth treating as a real structural fact about this collection rather than passing over.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are four powers: energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom.
A familiar list, one term short
Vīriyabala, satibala, samādhibala, paññābala — energy, mindfulness, immersion, wisdom. The tradition's standard list of powers, found constantly elsewhere in the canon and paired closely with the five faculties, indriya, has five members: saddhābala, the power of faith, stands first, before energy. This discourse gives the same set with faith removed.
Why faith, specifically, and not another item
This is not an arbitrary truncation. Faith is regularly the item most sensitive to a listener's temperament and background in the tradition's broader treatment of these five — useful, even necessary, as a starting confidence, but not always treated as belonging on the same footing as the other four once a practitioner is further along. Dropping it here, rather than mindfulness or immersion, is consistent with faith's more provisional standing relative to the other four throughout the wider canon.
A tetrad shaped by its collection, again
This is the same structural pressure already seen operating on the eightfold path, split across AN 4.215–216 and again at AN 4.225–226 because eight does not fit one tetrad. Here the pressure runs the other direction: five items do not fit a tetrad either, so one is dropped rather than the set being split across two discourses. Both solutions serve the same underlying constraint — the Fours require four — met by different means depending on how much the surrounding content can tolerate being reshaped.
What remains, and why it still coheres
Even without faith, the remaining four form a workable description of sustained practice: energy to keep at it, mindfulness to keep track of what one is doing, immersion to steady the mind, and wisdom to see clearly. The four cohere as a practical sequence in their own right, which may be part of why this discourse felt free to state them without faith rather than needing a companion discourse to supply it separately, the way the eightfold path needed AN 4.216 to complete what AN 4.215 began.
Key terms
bala — “power” — the term naming both this discourse and the tradition's more familiar list of five.
saddhābala — “the power of faith” — the fifth member of the traditional list, absent from this discourse's tetrad.
indriya — “faculty” — the closely related fivefold set the tradition usually pairs with the five powers, sharing the same five terms under a different frame.
vīriyabala, satibala, samādhibala, paññābala — the four powers named here: energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom.
bojjhaṅga — “awakening factor” — a related but distinct sevenfold list, already met at AN 4.238, sharing several terms in common with the powers.
The text
The discourse in full: the four powers. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Four powers
§1“Mendicants, there are these four powers. What four? The powers of energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. These are the four powers.”
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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. The tradition's familiar five powers, with one term absent.
Question 2 of 10
What term is missing from this discourse's list, compared to the tradition's standard fivefold set?
Correct: B. The item that normally stands first in the list of five.
Question 3 of 10
Why does the guide suggest faith specifically was dropped, rather than another item?
Correct: B. Consistent with faith's standing relative to the other four elsewhere in the tradition.
Question 4 of 10
What comparison does the guide draw to the eightfold path's treatment in this series?
Correct: B. Two different solutions to the same underlying constraint.
Question 5 of 10
What closely related fivefold set does the tradition usually pair with the five powers?
Correct: B. Faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom, viewed as both powers and faculties.
Question 6 of 10
How does the guide describe the coherence of the remaining four items without faith?
Correct: B. Coherent enough that no second discourse was needed to complete the set.
Question 7 of 10
What earlier discourse in this chapter named a related but distinct sevenfold list sharing several terms with the powers?
Correct: B. The seven awakening factors were named at AN 4.238, in an earlier chapter, sharing mindfulness, energy, and immersion with this list.
Question 8 of 10
What does this discourse's form consist of?
Correct: B. Matching the bare style of several other short discourses in this chapter.
Question 9 of 10
What is samādhibala?
Correct: B. The third of the four powers named here.
Question 10 of 10
What discourse follows this one?
Correct: B. A different kind of tetrad, on thoughts and mental qualities.
