Six powers 六力

The nine stages of resting the mind are accomplished through the six powers (Skt. ṣaḍbala; Tib. སྟོབས་དྲུག་, tob druk; Wyl. stobs drug):

瑜伽三十卷十頁云：當知此中，由六種力，方能成辦九種心住。一、聽聞力。二、思惟力。三、憶念力。四、正知力。五、精進力。六、串習力。初由聽聞思惟二力，數聞數思增上力故；最初令心於內境住，及即於此相續方便，澄淨方便，等遍安住。如是於內繫縛心已；由憶念力，數數作意，攝錄其心，令不散亂；安住、近住。從此已後，由正知力，調息其心；於其諸相，諸惡尋思，諸隨煩惱，不令流散；調順、寂靜。由精進力，設彼二種，暫現行時；能不忍受，尋即斷滅、除遣、變吐；最極寂靜，專注一趣。由串習力，等持成滿。

1. Listening/study (Skt. śrūtabala; Tib. ཐོས་པ་, töpa; Wyl. thos pa) – ‘resting the mind’ is accomplished through listening to meditation instructions
   
2. Reflection (Skt. āśayabala; Tib. བསམ་པ་, sampa; Wyl. bsam pa) – ‘resting the mind longer’ is accomplished through reflection and contemplation
   
3. Mindfulness (Skt. smṛtibala; Tib. དྲན་པ་, drenpa; Wyl. dran pa) – through mindfulness one accomplishes ‘continuously resettling’ and ‘fully settling the mind’; whenever one is distracted one gathers the mind and slowly, through habituation, non-distraction occurs
   
4. Awareness (Skt. saṃprajanyabala; Tib. ཤེས་བཞིན་, shé shyin; Wyl. shes bzhin) – through awareness one accomplishes ‘taming the mind’, ‘pacifying the mind’ and ‘completely pacifying the mind’; with joy for awareness and seeing the faults of succumbing to thoughts and negative emotions, one no longer falls prey to them
   
5. Diligence (Skt. vīryabala; Tib. བརྩོན་འགྲུས་, tsöndrü; Wyl. brtson ‘grus) – through diligence one accomplishes ‘complete pacification’ and ‘one-pointedness’; even subtle thoughts and negative emotions are abandoned
   
6. Complete familiarity (Skt. abhyasabala; Tib. ཡོངས་སུ་འདྲིས་པ་, yongsu dripa; Wyl. yongs su ‘dris pa) – the final stage of ‘resting in equanimity’ where the mind is unaffected by the obstacles of dullness or agitation is accomplished through complete familiarity.

Further Reading

• Sogyal Rinpoche, A Treasury of Dharma (Lodeve: Rigpa, 2005), pages 228-234.