Indrīya and Bhava

These five qualities are also called strengths. The difference between “faculty” and “strength” lies in the intensity. The Pāli word for faculty, indrīya, is related to Indra, the king of the gods. When something is a faculty in the mind, it’s in charge. You can think of the mind as being like a committee. A strength is a strong member of the committee whereas a faculty is someone who has taken over the committee and runs it.

When you think of the mind as a committee, it’s important to realize that each member of the committee consists of what the Buddha calls a bhava, or becoming. A becoming is an identity that you take on in a particular world of experience.

This can refer to your identity as a human being in the physical world around us or to the identities you assume within the thought-worlds of your mind. In fact, one of the Buddha’s discoveries was that the identities you assume in your thought-worlds will have an impact on the identities and worlds you assume after death.

Both the identity and your sense of the world depend on a desire…

…The basic principle in every becoming, though, is that your desire shapes both you and the world you experience.

This reflection by Ajaan Geoff is from the Retreats book, The Five Faculties : Putting Wisdom in Charge of the Mind, “Introduction.”