194: Beautiful Mental Factors 'Sobhana Cetasika' (Part 1) Faith and Mindfulness

In this first episode on the Beautiful Mental Factors (Sobhana Cetasikas), we begin exploring the wholesome qualities that purify and uplift the mind. We discuss the first two universal beautiful factors — Faith (Saddhā) and Mindfulness (Sati) — which form the foundation for all wholesome mental states.

Learn how faith in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha opens the heart with clarity and confidence, and how mindfulness serves as the guardian of the six sense doors, keeping the mind clear and free from defilements. Together, these two qualities set the path toward wisdom, purity, and liberation.

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SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Namo tasabhagavato rahato samma sambudasa nammo tasabhagavato rahto samasambudasa nam tasabhagavato rahato samasambudasa Tiravarat Buddhism Buddhism series gamma talk number seventeen Beautiful Mental Factors Sabana Jitasika We have been discussing about fifty-two mental factors jitasika and there are three groups under that fifty-two mental factors.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02

The first group is called common to another. It has two subdivisions or subgroups and consists of thirteen mental factors. The first subgroup contains seven mental factors and these are associated with every kind of consciousness. All 121. And the second subgroup contains six mental factors and are associated with fifty-five consciousness. It has five subgroups and consists of fourteen mental factors. Four of them are associated with all types of unwholesome consciousness. Three associated with greed-rooted consciousness. Four associated with anger rooted consciousness. Two of the mantles are associated with one of the delusion consciousness, Moha Jita. And the last, the fifth is a standalone. Just a single mental factor. So there are five subgroups under the heading of Akusala Jitasika Unwholesome Mental Factors. And we have finished discussing about those two groups. Today we are going to step into the third group. The third group is called beautiful mental factors. In Pali, Sobhna Jitasika. Sobana means beautiful, graceful. And all these beautiful mental factors are wholesome. And it has four subgroup. The first subgroup is called universal beautiful mental factors. The second is called abstinence mental factors. And the third subgroup is called limitless mental factors. And the fifth subgroup is called standalone wisdom. Altogether twenty-five of them. So if you look at it, the first one, Commanduanada, has thirteen. Second one, unwholesome group, has fourteen. Thirteen plus fourteen, twenty-seven. And the last one is twenty-five. So these are all fifty-two mental factors that invariably associated with different types of consciousness. You can say in general there are 89 types of consciousness. In detail 121. So let's talk about the fifth subgroup of the beautiful mental factors. It is called universal beautiful mental factors. Sabha Sobana Jitasika. Sabha is universal, common, everything. Sobhanat, beautiful, graceful, jitasikat, mental factor. There are nineteen beautiful mental factors in this group. And all of these arises with all fifty-nine beautiful consciousness. There are fifty-nine beautiful consciousness. That is why it is called universal. So this group is common to all beautiful consciousness. For that reason it is called universal. The group doesn't arise with unwholesome consciousness or rootless consciousness. They never associate with those two types of consciousness. Unwholesome or rootless. This group arises with sensphere consciousness. They arise only with those types. Now we are going to discuss this nineteen beautiful mental factors one by one. If you want to understand a mental factor fully, you must know its characteristics, its functions, its manifestations, and proximate cause or causes. And if you can't remember all full categories, at least you must know the characteristics so that you can identify it, so that you can recognize it when you are experiencing it. And the first of the beautiful mental factors, Buddha opened with this one, saddha. Translate it as verifiable faith. Simply they use the word faith, I put the word verifiable. Verifiable faith and confidence. That is sadha. Buddhist faith is not a blind faith. It is always associated with understanding. One may not comprehend at the beginning fully, but can be verified as the investigation into it goes on. Bit by bit you will come to understand and experience yourself what the Buddha had explained to us, all the elders. It is always associated with understanding to a certain degree. That's why the word confidence is also used to translate this word sadda. So faith and confidence is sadha. Its characteristic is putting faith or belief or trust. If you put faith, if you put belief, if you put trust in something, someone, then that is sadha. Remember, there must be understanding associated with it. Even though you believe trust or put faith, not blind. Understanding associated with it to a certain degree of understanding. Its function is to clarify. Let's say one cannot see the bottom of a pond because the waters are muddy. You can't see through and you don't know what underneath is. But if the water is clear, you can see the bottom of the lake with clarity. Can see with clarity if the water is clear or not muddi. That's the function of sadha. When sadha comes in, you can see things clearly. You can see with clarity. There's no if or but, no doubt. Satta gives clarity to the condition of whatever one is investigating. And also its functions can be put in this way. Its function is to set forth the right code. To set forth. A group of people, let's say, are at a torrential stream bank. A bunch of friends, five, six people. They were hiking, come to a across a torrential band. The stream is not too wide to jump, but at the same time wide enough to have doubt that you could. The river's really flowing, and they you have a very important appointment on the other side of the river. So they are talking and one in the group says, okay, I'm going to give a try. Because that person believes in himself. I can do that. And he just takes a little few steps back, ran it up and jumped, and got safely onto the other side. And as soon as the rest of the friends saw that their friend could do, they gained confidence. No, we can do it. If he can do it, we can do it. And then one after the other they jump and they jump and they jump and safely arrive to the other side. At first, no, they didn't dare to. That is sadha. That is confidence. Sadha set forth things into motion without hesitation. That's what set forth means. Sadha set forth things into motion without hesitation. Now manifestation. And its manifestation is non-folginess. Or you can say it manifests as removal of mental impurities. Or you can say it manifests as making up the mind. You make up the mind. When you take make up the mind, you take on that object or you take on that situation or condition or taste and you commit yourself to it. That's it. That is what Satha manifests as. And its proximate cause. Its proximate cause is something to place faith or confidence in. That something is the proximate cause. Something to put faith or confidence in. From the Buddhist perspective, it is having faith in Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. And karma and vibaka. Cause and effect. The law of cause and effect. That is a simple direct representation. But let's see, in a practical sense, what does it mean? There's two bigger things. Having faith in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Kama, Vibaka. So in a practical, I'll put on a practical operational sense. We are now yogis, we are the practicing yogis who are listening here. A yogi must have sadha in associating with the wise person. The wise person, the holy person. The one who is very learned as well as they were both theory and practice in the Buddhism. That's a wise and the holy. One must associate. And also one listen. I shouldn't say must. The practical sense. One has a wanting to, willing to associate with the wise and holy person. And also listening to the Dharma talks. Reflecting on the Dharma talks. You reflect. You analyze. You try to make sense. And practicing them. Associate with a teacher. Listen to his talks. Reflect, question, discuss, and then practice. And these are actually the requirements if you want to become a noble person. If you want to become a string winner, Suttapana. So that is the operational strategy of having faith in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the law of karma. You can view it that way. So simple for a yogi. Straight. Step one, step two, step three, step four. Sadha is like a hand. Without a hand, one cannot pick up. Even if you see a precious and valuable things right under your nose. Without the hand you cannot pick up. Just like that, without having sadha, one cannot pick up the jewel of Satana, the jewel of first noble personship. Sada is like a source of a river. High up in the mountain, that's the source. It all started from the source. The water flows and the river runs. Without that source there is no river. Just like that, Sada is the source. For all wholesome actions to start from. Without Sada, all these all wholesome actions cannot start. Cannot begin. It is like a seed. Once you have a seed plant planted, a tree grows, branches grow. Flowers and fruits come into reality. All start from a seed. Without that seed, a tree and flowers and branches and fruits cannot come into existence. Without sadha, all the wholesome cannot, actions cannot come into existence. Especially the stream winner, Suttapana, into existence. Because in general wholesome things you can find in anywhere, everywhere. Not necessarily sadha, buddhis sadha. Buddhisadha flow into the ariya field. The domain of ariya, noble person. For that you need Buddhist type of sadha. So to become a stream winner, Suttapana, it begins with sadha. Sadha must always be balanced with wisdom. Wisdom or understanding. Otherwise one will become gullible. Or one can step into the field of raga lust. Sadha is so willing and wanting to do, and if you don't check, with the wisdom or understanding, you become, you'll be taking advantage by others, gullible. Or you're just willing and wanting to help, to believe in someone so much, eventually it is not just wanting to help that person. You step into the raga lustful field.

SPEAKER_00: 22:47

It can happen.

SPEAKER_01: 22:49

So I think this will be sufficient enough to understand saddha from the point of characteristics, functions, manifestation, and the proximate cause. So second mental factor. This is the first Buddha opened with Satta because that is where everything springs. So that's importance. That's why it took the first position. The second position is taken by sati, mindfulness. Once you have sadha, the second one you have to start plugging in is mindfulness. The word sati in Pali S-A-T-I. Its root meaning is straight out remembering. Sati means remembering. Language wise, Pali language-wise. Okay, what does you remember? What does one remember? Remembering all that is wholesome and good. Not just remembering anything, once you say mindfulness, whenever one remembers, remembering anything that is wholesome and good. However, this sati mindfulness as a mental factor, Jitasika. Mindfulness as a mental factor does not imply remembering at all. And what implies is paying direct and full attention to the object of the present moment. That's what it means as a mental factor. Mindfulness as a mental factor is paying direct and full attention to the object of the present moment. Sati mindfulness in general, meaning-wise, is remembering all that is good and wholesome. Satit as a mental factor is paying direct and full attention to the object of the present moment. So don't get confused between the two. They are entirely different, but somehow it is connected. You will see why and how. Six doors. Mindfulness is like a guardian and a gatekeeper of those six doors. It does not allow any mental defilements to come through those doors. Check the ID, check your passport, so that it's a friend, not a fool, so that it is wholesome, not unwholesome mental defilements. That's why the Buddhist said it is the only sure way to keep the mind purified. How? By always keeping face to face with the object at the six gates, at the sixth sense door. If you can do that, the mind will be a hundred percent purified at all times. But you must be a gatekeeper, you must be a guardian at the sixth sense door. Checking all the time. Wholesome, unwholesome. Unwholesome, reject the visa. Wholesome. You print the visa to enter. The proximate cause is the full foundation of mindfulness. Just plain and simple. I always like to stress on a more practical and operational sense. Proximate cause is the full foundation of mindfulness. By developing the full foundation of mindfulness. By developing it, a strong perception of mindfulness will be established. You cannot establish a strong mindfulness without practicing it. Why do you practice? You practice to develop full foundation of mindfulness. By developing full foundation of mindfulness, you established a strong perception of mindfulness. That's why you will see a one-line answer. What is the cause? What is the approximate cause? Mindfulness is the cause and mindfulness is the effect. One-line answer. But to clarify that, that's what it is. One must develop full foundation of mindfulness so that one can establish a strong perception of mindfulness. So these are the two mental factors the Puddha right out opened when he taught us about Jitasika mental factors. The beautiful mental factors. Without sadha, no other things can really follow. And once you have sadha, you must be mindful. Only when you are mindful, you can navigate through this thick of wholesome and unwholesome feels. And you can reject all that is unwholesome and you can embrace all that is wholesome. So for this talk we will end here and we will keep on going till all the nineteen beautiful universal mental factors are completed. May all of you be able to understand all the unwholesome mental factors that one needs to reject or eliminate, and all the beautiful wholesome mental factors that we need to develop and march towards the goal of sort of partnership as soon as possible.