This chapter contains discourses that explore sets of five qualities, concepts, or principles central to the Buddha's teachings. Each sutta investigates groups such as the five aggregates, the five spiritual faculties, or the five hindrances. These teachings demonstrate how these elements interact and support each other in the practice of the Dhamma. The "Book of Fives" offers a comprehensive understanding of how these grouped qualities work together to advance spiritual development and insight on the way of practice to enlightenment.
The Book of the Fives
The Buddha teaches the cultivation of the noble fivefold right collectedness with vivid similes, and shares how one who has cultivated this can realize any phenomenon realizable by directly knowing.
The Buddha explains the benefits of walking meditation.
The Buddha describes five suitable times for giving a gift - to a guest, traveler, sick person, during famine, and to the virtuous.
The giver of food gives five things to the recipients - life, beauty, happiness, strength, and eloquence. They also find happiness as a result of their giving.
How an uninstructed ordinary person and a learned disciple of the Noble Ones respond to the five unobtainable states of aging, illness, death, perishing, and loss.
The Buddha explains how to overcome complacency and doubt by guarding the sense faculties, applying moderation in eating, being dedicated to wakefulness, developing insight into wholesome qualities, and engaging in the development of the awakening factors during the first and last watch of the night.
The Buddha teaches the importance of frequently reflecting upon the five subjects of 1) aging, 2) illness, 3) death, 4) separation from everyone and everything dear and pleasing, and 5) one's relation to one's actions.
Developing the bases of psychic power can lead to enlightenment in this very life or the state of non-returning.
Developing the bases of psychic power can lead to enlightenment in this very life or the state of non-returning.
Using the example of a king’s elephant on the battlefield, the Buddha presents two contrasting scenarios - In one case, a person, overwhelmed by enticing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches is unable to collect and settle the mind; in the other, a person patiently endures without becoming infatuated with external objects, and is able to compose and stabilize the mind amidst sensory contact.
Five types of persons for whom specific discussions are difficult, and five types of persons for whom specific discussions are pleasant.
Five ways to overcome arisen resentment - 1) loving-kindness, 2) compassion, 3) equanimity, 4) disregarding and non-attention, 5) reflection on kamma.
Five ways to overcome arisen resentment
Five factors of well-spoken speech are - 1) It is spoken at the proper time, 2) truthfully, 3) gently, 4) in a way that benefits, and 5) spoken with a mind of loving-kindness.
The Buddha explains that one is incapable of entering and dwelling in the first jhāna without giving up five qualities.