Now, I will talk about the “five powers”. The purpose of learning Buddhism, and of practising and cultivating the mind, is to discover our inherent nature. To do this requires us to verify by ourselves. What this means is that if you want to find your inherent nature, you must use the five powers:
1. The power of faith: This is the power of firm and genuine belief. The power of faith is particularly important, because, as the saying goes, “Faith is the source of the Way, and the mother of merit and virtue”. Believing in the Way means to have the power of faith. In other words, you believe that you will succeed at something, and you believe that Guan Yin Bodhisattva will save us. The mother of merit and virtue is the source and the root of the Way. Only when you believe can you grasp at the root and attain merit and virtue. If someone lacks confidence in what they do, and therefore does not have the power of faith, they will not succeed in anything they do at all. The power of faith can dispel doubt, so that you will not waver.
2. The power of efforts: This is the power of diligence. Some people say they believe in Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but at the same time do not properly recite Buddhist scriptures. Some say they believe that the Bodhisattvas will save them, and yet they are not diligent. Moreover, while you are making efforts, you must not mix with other practices. If you fail at that, you are not diligent. If you want to learn a bit of everything, you will succeed in nothing. The power of efforts also means to advance bravely and vigorously in cultivation.
For example, if you are severely ill, you must more often recite the Great Compassion Mantra and other sutras. Why? Because the illness you encounter is not what ordinary people can endure. So, if you want to recover, you must do what ordinary people cannot do, and you must endure what ordinary people cannot endure. Only then can you recover from what ails you.
3. The power of mindfulness: This is about your thoughts, which are especially important. With sincerity and positive intentions, all the things you do are counted as merits and virtues. On the contrary, if you have selfish motives and distracting thoughts, you will lose your power of mindfulness and fail to find and verify your inherent nature.
4. The power of concentration: This is the power of right concentration. How do we distinguish what is right? It is done with the power of faith in order to locate our minds. For example, after you pray to Guan Yin Bodhisattva, your mind will be settled because you believe in Guan Yin Bodhisattva – “I must have right concentration; I believe that the wholesome deeds that I perform are from the bottom of my heart; they are the right things to do.” The power of concentration can dispel every distracting thought, enabling the mind to be calm.
5. The power of wisdom: Wisdom includes the “right wisdom”. While many people possess wisdom, it’s not necessary used in good ways. For example, scientists may have wisdom but they also research and develop atomic bombs, biological weapons, and the like. So, are they truly wise? Likewise, if one deviates and cannot find their inherent nature, the wisdom that arises is not then the right wisdom. They will only create negative karma.
To find your inherent nature and verify whether your cultivation of the mind is on the right path, you must possess these five powers. If you’re still not sure, you can use your mind to speculate. Then, coupled with the five powers, you will be aware of whether what you are doing is right or not.
If a person does not have the five powers, it’s like using a mirror to reflect one’s shadow. You see that the shadow and the shape in the mirror are the same, but in the mirror, you cannot see your true self – it is merely a reflection of the true appearance. It is just a shadow, not your inherent nature. If you want to find your true inherent nature, don’t look at the shadow, don’t listen to what you say, and don’t look at your appearance or your shape. Rather, grasp at the inherent nature from within.
Another point to stress is this: If you want to find the inherent nature and learn Buddhism, you cannot simply rely on reading the Buddhist scriptures or texts. While many may think that by reading a lot of scriptures and texts they can obtain the true Buddha-dharma and discover their inherent nature and primeval soul. But that’s impossible because the Buddha-dharma is incomparably profound and beyond comprehension with our level of wisdom. As an analogy, while every scientist is able to know a small, isolated part of the universe through research, they are not able to get to the bottom of all the myriad phenomena that occur.
When learning Buddhism and cultivating the mind, you must follow Master closely. If “shop” around for different teachings or practices, you will only become more distracted and confused. You will also end up confusing others with your own confusion. You are prone to mistakes with just a momentary lapse of attention, so whether you can make good progress in your cultivation is entirely in your hands.