The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So welcome. This is the second talk on the five faculties and when we translate this word,

poly word indria as faculties,

we are kind of diminishing or hiding the power of the word India, the strength of the word, the faculty just seems like

oh it's just like a potential that we have maybe if we have a faculty we could use it. The word

means of Indra. Indra was in the time of the Buddha the head god of the pantheon of gods and maybe in ancient Greece it would you would say like, you know, qualities of Zeus or in Norway the qualities of

of Odin or some great God.

And the, and so these are qualities and the reason, and they're qualities that of, that can take charge, can really guide and help us to take control in a certain kind of way of our life.

In American Buddhism, it's controlling ourselves

is often seem as not appropriate.

But there is a way of, it's very appropriate

to show up and really take charge of our practice in a certain

way.

We have these faculties, we have these capacities that really

infuse and enliven and give strength to the practices we do.

And there's nothing wrong with doing Buddhist practice strongly

calling upon a capacity for inner strength. It may be even a capacity for inner power, and it's a strength and power that can

support us to live without hate, without greed, without conceit, without asserting ourselves or wanting

to dominate other people or be aggressive.

Not but a power that also keeps us from being weak or succumbing or collapsing or running away.

And so this word India is a powerful word

as is the word that's usually transferred

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