Saṅkhittasutta — Balavagga — the second chapter of the Fives
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 5.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A single sentence naming a second five-item list, sharing this chapter's own title, 'Saṅkhitta', with AN 5.1
Length
~30 seconds to read
Northern parallel
The five powers (bala) are among the most widely attested lists across the Chinese Āgamas and Abhidharma literature, as part of the thirty-seven aids to awakening; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief, but the moment this chapter has been building toward since AN 4.163
Why this discourse
This is the moment flagged at AN 4.163, and again at AN 5.1: the chapter finally states the other five-item list, the one that actually belongs to the thirty-seven aids to awakening. Faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, wisdom — not faith, conscience, prudence, energy, wisdom. Two of the five names are shared; two are different; one, faith, recurs unchanged in every version this series has met. The discourse reuses AN 5.1’s own title, Saṅkhitta, and even its exact sentence structure, changing only the list inside it.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are five powers — faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, wisdom — named in a single sentence with no elaboration, exactly as AN 5.1 named the sekhabala.
The swap, stated precisely
Against the sekhabala’s saddhā, hiri, ottappa, vīriya, paññā, this list gives saddhā, vīriya, sati, samādhi, paññā. Faith and wisdom are unchanged at either end; energy moves from fourth position to second; conscience and prudence are dropped entirely, replaced by mindfulness and immersion. This is exactly the substitution AN 4.163 first flagged and AN 5.1 restated in summary; here, for the first time in this series, the substituted list gets its own discourse rather than being mentioned as a comparison.
Why call both discourses ‘In Brief’
Reusing AN 5.1’s title is not an accident of naming. It signals that this discourse is doing for the standard bala exactly what AN 5.1 did for the sekhabala — and, as AN 5.14’s title Vitthata confirms a discourse later, the same brief-then-detailed pairing that opened the last chapter opens this list within the current one. The collection reuses its own structural habits deliberately, not only its content.
Why this list, and not the sekhabala, is the more widely known one
This five-item set, unlike the sekhabala, recurs as one of the standard groups making up the thirty-seven aids to awakening (bodhipakkhiyā dhammā), alongside the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties (an identically worded list under a different name), and the seven awakening factors. A reader meeting ‘the five powers’ without qualification elsewhere in the canon should expect this list, not the sekhabala — which makes this chapter’s earlier use of the sekhabala, under the same English chapter title, worth remembering as the exception rather than the rule.
What follows
AN 5.14 expands each of these five in turn, including, for immersion, the full four-absorption formula this series has met many times before. AN 5.15 will then locate each of the five within a different four-item list of its own, tying this whole set to material spanning most of the aids to awakening.
Key terms
bala — “power” — the general term naming both this list and the sekhabala; context, not the word itself, tells a reader which set is meant.
satibalaṁ — “power of mindfulness” — one of the two items replacing hiri and ottappa in this version of the five powers.
samādhibalaṁ — “power of immersion” — the second replacement, to be defined at AN 5.14 by the full four-absorption formula.
bodhipakkhiyā dhammā — “aids to awakening” — the thirty-seven-item framework this five-power list belongs to, unlike the sekhabala.
indriya — “faculty” — the near-identical five-item list sharing this set’s exact five terms under a different name within the aids to awakening.
The text
The discourse in full: the five powers, named once, with no elaboration. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, there are these five powers. What five? The powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. These are the five 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 five items does AN 5.13 name?
Correct: B. The list first flagged as distinct at AN 4.163, now given its own discourse.
Question 2 of 10
Which two items are unchanged between the sekhabala and this list?
Correct: B. Saddhā and paññā anchor both versions of the list.
Question 3 of 10
Which two items does this list have that the sekhabala does not?
Correct: B. Sati and samādhi replace hiri and ottappa.
Question 4 of 10
Why does AN 5.13 share its title, 'Saṅkhitta', with AN 5.1?
Correct: B. The collection reuses its own structural habits, not only its content.
Question 5 of 10
What larger framework does this five-power list belong to, unlike the sekhabala?
Correct: B. Alongside mindfulness meditation, right efforts, bases of psychic power, faculties, and awakening factors.
Question 6 of 10
What does the guide say a reader should expect when meeting 'the five powers' without qualification elsewhere in the canon?
Correct: B. This chapter's earlier use of the sekhabala is flagged as the exception, not the rule.
Question 7 of 10
What does AN 5.14, the next discourse, do with this list?
Correct: B. The 'in detail' companion this title's own name promises.
Question 8 of 10
What does the near-identical list called 'indriya' share with this one?
Correct: B. Faculties and powers: the same five items, two different labels.
Question 9 of 10
How long is this discourse compared to AN 5.1?
Correct: B. The same terse, bare-list form as its namesake.
Question 10 of 10
Where is AN 5.13 set?
Correct: B. Consistent with the chapter's pattern so far.
