Iddhipādā ‒ The Bases for Spiritual Power

Bhikkhus, those who have neglected the four bases for spiritual power have neglected the noble path leading to the complete destruction of suffering. Those who have undertaken the four bases for spiritual power have undertaken the noble path leading to the complete destruction of suffering.

SN 51. 5 2(2)

The Buddha’s disciples often refer to him as the “Supreme Teacher” as he, for example, reached enlightenment independently ‒without a teacher‒ and he was “the teacher of devas and humans.” Out of compassion for all beings, he taught the path to liberation from suffering. During his remarkable 45-year ministry, he set up and stabilized a monastic order that has survived up to the present, and constructed an incontrovertible structure of teachings, known as the Dhamma or Buddhadhamma.

The Buddha expounded the Dhamma in diverse ways, depending on circumstances, noteworthy events, the temperament, and degree of spiritual development of his listeners, and the specific questions posed to him. His teachings included occasions of silence and the example of his extraordinary daily life. His ability to communicate precisely the type of teaching needed was unsurpassed. Therefore, the Dhamma is proclaimed as “Well expounded by the Blessed One.” Sammāsambuddhas (fully self-enlightened Buddhas capable of teaching) surpass all other beings in their ability and power to convey a teaching efficiently and thoroughly. The Buddha placed this power foremost among all others.

Dhamma Frameworks

The Buddha pointed out and clarified many aspects of reality and often pointed to a certain orderliness within it, which he penetrated with his perfect insight. He taught these diverse aspects with the necessary level of abstraction to make them understandable by devas and humans. The teachings he left for posterity began to take shape from the moment he first expounded them. His disciples memorized the entire body of teachings and rigorously reviewed them shortly after his passing into parinibbāna. As his ministry progressed, his disciples amassed a vast amount of knowledge, organizing textual teachings into overarching frameworks.

These general frameworks serve as useful didactic units, mnemonic devices, or summaries that practitioners can use as tools for reaching liberation. The Dhamma is so vast that the diverse aspects of a particular teaching may only be comprehended through the division of the body of teachings into sets, subdivisions, and smaller groupings. For example, the basic framework of “The Four Noble Truths” includes the “Noble Eightfold Path” (the Fourth Noble Truth). One limb of the Path is “Right Effort,” which is further subdivided into four aspects.

Within the body of Dhamma, there is a fundamental, self-contained, and self-sufficient framework called “The 37 Requisites of Enlightenment” (bodhipakkhiya dhammā). This framework is self-contained and self-sufficient because it requires no further additions and can, by itself, lead to the attainment of enlightenment.

For a teaching to be qualified as Buddhadhamma, it must fit into the fundamental teaching common to all Buddhas, namely, the Four Noble Truths. Venerable Sāriputta, the Buddha's chief disciple, once declared:¹

Just as the footprint of any living being that walks can be placed within an elephant's footprint, and so the elephant's footprint is declared the chief of them because of its great size; so too, all wholesome states can be included in the Four Noble Truths.

In this way, all valid Dhamma frameworks may fit somehow into the Four Noble Truths. The 37 bodhipakkhiya dhammā is one such framework. This framework is so important that it has been described as the type of wholesome mental phenomena that are the proximate cause of path knowledge.²

The Requisites of Enlightenment are grouped as follows:

1. Four Foundations of Mindfulness (cattāro satipaṭṭhāna)
2. Four Right Strivings (sammāpadhāna)
3. Four Bases for Power (iddhipāda)
4. Five Spiritual Faculties (pañcindriya)
5. Five Powers (pañcabala)
6. Seven Enlightenment Factors (satabojjh’aṅga)
7. Eight Noble Path Factors (ariya aṭṭhaṅghikamagga)

The Bases for Spiritual Power

The bases for spiritual power, or bases for success (iddhipādā), are part of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment and are different from the iddhis or supernormal powers, which make up a category of six divisions called abhiññā. The important distinction is that the abhiññās are not a necessary condition for enlightenment and are of a mundane nature, while the iddhipādā lead to enlightenment since they are fundamentally linked with the attainment of path and fruition consciousness’ and can be thus of a supramundane nature.

In Saṃyutta Nikāya 51.24(4) the iddhipādā are listed in brief as:

• Concentration due to desire [aspiration] and volitional formations of striving, as a basis for spiritual power (chandasamādhi).
• Concentration due to energy [effort, persistence] and volitional formations of striving, as a basis for spiritual power (viriyasamādhi).
• Concentration due to [application of the] mind [attentiveness, intent] and volitional formations of striving, as a basis for spiritual power (cittasamādhi).
• Concentration due to investigation [discernment, discrimination] and volitional formations of striving (vimaṃsāsamadhi).

It is worthy of note that in the “Cetokhila Sutta” (Majjhima Nikaya 16) mentions enthusiasm (ussoḷdhi) as a fifth iddhipāda ‒in this way deviating from the traditional fourfold division that is part of the bodhipakkhiya dhammas. The third iddhipāda is sometimes defined as the concentration due to purity of the mind and volitional formations of striving, this point is discussed herein in the forthcoming elaboration on the topic.

Venerable Ṭhānissaro in his book The Wings to Awakening³ explains that the definitions consist of three parts:

1. The volition to endeavor [volitional formations of striving].
2. The predominant factor [desire, energy, mind or investigation as the springboards to concentration].
3. The concentration derived therefrom.

The primary goal of developing the iddhipādā is to attain concentration (samādhi). Practitioners of Buddhist meditation should keep in mind the brilliant and simple definition found in the Vimuttimagga:

The even practice of mindfulness and energy is concentration.” This definition refers to the balance of the spiritual faculties and can be elevated from the mundane to the supramundane level by rephrasing it as: “The even practice of right mindfulness and right energy is right concentration.

Simile explaining the function and reach of the iddhipādas

In Saṃyutta Nikāya V 51. 15(5) the venerable Ānanda provides a simile illustrating how “craving can be abandoned by means of craving” ‒within the framework of the iddhipādas. He explains to the brahmin Uṇṇābha ‒in brief‒ that “before he went to a park, he had the desire to go; that before going to the park, he had to arouse energy thinking “I will go to the park”; and that before he went to the park, he had to make up his mind resolving: “I will go to the park”; he also had to investigate considering: “Shall I go to the park?.” In each case, Ānanda made him see that after going to the park, his desire, energy, resolution, and investigation subsided because he had reached his goal. Similarly, he said: an arahant, before reaching that state, first had to arouse desire, energy, resolution, and investigation towards attaining the goal of final liberation, and that having reached it, those same bases that were conducive to it subsided. The beauty of the simile is that it also offers a simple and easily understandable way to grasp the meaning of the iddhipādas.

Abhidhamma perspective and further elaboration

From the perspective of the Abhidhamma (the third division of the early Buddhist scriptures dealing with the analysis of the ultimate components of reality), the iddhipādas are considered “predominant” (as mental factors, cetasika) because they dominate or exercise supreme control over the state of consciousness (citta). A faculty (e.g., faith) exercises control only within its respective sphere, but the predominant controls the entire state of consciousness. Another distinction is that a particular state of consciousness may have more than one faculty at any moment but may only possess one predominant at a single moment. Thus, one iddhipāda is predominant at a particular time but it cannot coexist with others of its kind simultaneously.⁵

The first iddhipāda, concentration derived from aspiration accompanied by volitional formations of striving, refers to the desire-to-act, the zeal or aspiration to attain an immediate goal in order to reach the final goal of the Buddha's teaching. It is a predominant factor for reaching concentration and is the kind of intention that leans either towards enlightenment (or its supportive factors) or the supernormal powers (iddhis). A crucial aspect is the ability to aim this desire not necessarily directly at the result, giving rise to expectations and henceforth any of the hindrances, but rather at the production of the causal factors needed to reach such a result. Candasamādhi might be thought of as the aspiration and self-generated unified zeal aimed to develop serenity and insight, two aspects of meditation that go together.

The second iddhipāda, concentration derived from diligent effort accompanied by volitional formations of striving, refers to concentration due to energetic or persistent effort that aims to reach both the immediate and final goal. It is linked with the path factors of right effort and right concentration but, as explained above, should be considered apart from the mere faculty of energy. All iddhipādas, in fact, are associated with right effort.⁶ Right effort is defined in a fourfold manner as the concentrative effort towards the non-arising of unwholesome states of mind that have not yet arisen; the effort to abandon arisen unwholesome states of mind; the effort to arouse wholesome states of mind that have not yet arisen; and the effort to maintain, increase, and perfect arisen wholesome states of mind. This aspect of the iddhipādā is illustrated in the “Sutta on Two Kinds of Thought,”⁷ there it is said that whenever an unwholesome state arose in the Bodhisatta’s mind, he, by concentrative effort, “abandoned it, removed it, and did away with it.” Further ahead in the sutta it is mentioned that whenever a wholesome thought arose and was established in him, he realized that there was nothing to fear from it, but that by excessive thinking and pondering on it he would tire his body, and then his mind would become disturbed, consequently this would impede his concentration. Therefore, he “steadied [his] mind internally, quieted it, brought it to singleness, and concentrated it. Why is that? So that [his] mind should not be disturbed.” As a result of this, he said that “Tireless energy was aroused in him⁸ and unremitting mindfulness was established, [his] body was tranquil and untroubled, [his] mind concentrated and unified.” Following these events, he proceeded to attain the jhānas on the night of his enlightenment.

The “volitional formations of striving” referred to in the definition of the iddhipādā are none other than the set of four right efforts (padhāna saṅkhārā) mentioned above, which constitutes the sixth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path.⁴ Interestingly, viriya (striving, effort, energy) as a mental factor appears included the most within the factors of the 37 requisites of enlightenment: four times within the four right efforts, and once each for the iddhipādā, the five faculties, the five spiritual powers, the seven factors of enlightenment and the noble eightfold path, a total of nine instances, in this respect it surpasses mindfulness (8), wisdom (5) and concentration (4). 

In the Anguttara Nikaya (“Book of the Fives”)⁹ the Buddha ‒paraphrasing a bhikkhu who exerts himself‒refers to viriyasamādhi in the following way:

…let me in advance arouse energy for the attainment of the as-yet-unattained, for the achievement of the as-yet-unachieved, for the realization of the as-yet-unrealized. Thus, when I am in that condition, I will dwell at ease even though old age assails me… even though illness assails this body… even through there are times of famine… even though there are times of turbulence and hard living conditions… even though there is as schism in the Saṅgha

The third iddhipāda, the concentration derived from application of the mind accompanied by volitional formations of striving comes about by the arousal of effort through a number of wholesome states of consciousness. It is developed through the combination of persistent effort (viriya), resolute mindfulness (sati), and by stabilizing the mind (samādhi). The standard formula for right effort (sammā vāyāma) in the Noble Eightfold Path repeatedly says that a bhikkhu “…makes effort, arouses energy, exerts his mind [italics mine], and strives.” One may infer from analyzing the third foundation of mindfulness that some of those states of mind might be: a mind that is not affected by delusion; a mind that is exalted; and a mind that is [purposefully] concentrated. These states would partake of mindfulness, alertness, and clear and firm intent directed towards the meditation subject. The Vimuttimagga offers valuable insights into the mental states conducive to concentration. It mentions an eightfold set of mental states considered causes of concentration, namely: renunciation (nekkhamma), non-hatred (adosa), brightness (pariyodāte), non-disturbance [stillness] (ṭhite), all skilful states, sustained application of thought [pondering, examination] (vicara), gladness (pāmojja), and all states that arouse knowledge of the truth.

 The fourth iddhipāda, concentration derived from investigation accompanied by volitional formations of striving, refers to the effort of will going with the concentration that arises from investigation, scrutiny, or discriminating inquiry into the advantages and benefits of the iddhis¹⁰ and other aspects of Dhamma. These aspects primarily pertain to the fundamental frameworks or experiential categories that make up the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. By investigating these introspectively, one can develop insight leading to the attainment of the supramundane paths. In the Vimuttimagga, it is mentioned that one of the requisites for developing concentration is “being intent on wisdom.” This means having the volition or will to strive for the acquisition of wisdom, leading to concentration and ‒in turn‒to liberating insight.

Finally, in the Samyutta Nikaya,¹¹ the Buddha states:

Bhikkhus, those who have neglected the four bases of power have neglected the noble path leading to the complete destruction of suffering. Those who have undertaken the four bases for spiritual power have undertaken the noble path leading to the complete destruction of suffering.

Conclusion

In modern times, the significance of the iddhipādas as a fundamental and necessary Dhamma category for practice for those aspiring to reach the noble paths and fruits has been regrettably neglected by both teachers and practitioners. Despite this oversight, the iddhipādas remain an integral part of the requisites of enlightenment. Within this framework, they, along with the four right efforts and the four foundations of mindfulness, constitute the training in the higher mind—one of the essential components that uphold the sīla-samādhi-paññā division forming the Noble Eightfold Path.

Recognizing the iddhipāda’s role is crucial in ensuring a comprehensive approach to Buddhist practice, as it provides the foundational mental power needed to advance along the path to liberation. By reintegrating the iddhipādas into contemporary practice and teaching, we can restore a balanced approach to the path towards liberation from suffering, honoring the complete system of training as taught by the Buddha. This revival can enhance the efficacy of modern practice and bring practitioners closer to achieving the noble fruits of the Dhamma.

Miguel A. Romero

NOTES:

1. Majjhima Nikāya 28, pp.278-285, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, transl. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, Wisdom Publications, Boston.
2. The Requisites of Enlightenment by Ven. Ledi Sayadaw, The Wheel Publication No. 171/174, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
3. The Wings to Awakening by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Dhamma-Dana Publications, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Barre, MA.
4. See Saṃyutta Nikāya V 51.13(3) and note 259; pp.1729 and 1944 respectively.
5. A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ed., Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, pp. 274-275.
6. Saṃyutta Nikaya V 51.1(1) and note 246; pp.1718 and 1939-1940 respectively. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Transl., Wisdom Publications, Boston.
7. Majjhima Nikaya 19, pp. 207-210, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, transl. Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, Wisdom Publications, Boston.
8. At that stage of development, the energy level that the Bodhisatta achieved would be considered not a faculty (indriya), but a spiritual power (bala) so intense that it could not be shaken by its opposite (namely laziness).
9. Anguttara Nikaya78(8), pp.710-713, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Transl., Wisdom Publications, Boston.
10. Mainly referring to the first two instances of the triple knowledge: recollection of past lives and the divine eye.
11. Saṃyutta Nikaya Chapter VII, 51. 2(2), pp.1718-1719. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Transl., Wisdom Publications, Boston.