The Five Faculties are five basic capacities inherent in our consciousness:

• faith (confidence, trust)
• diligence (energy, vitality)
• mindfulness (the ability to dwell fully in the present moment)
• concentration (the capacity to focus on one object)
• insight (understanding, wisdom)

When cared for and nourished daily, the Five Faculties develop into the Five Powers—inner strengths that help us progress on the path of practice. The five faculties inter-are; each faculty contains the other four. Faith must have diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and insight in order to be true faith, so that it does not become blind faith or superstition. Similarly, genuine faith is always based on insight, and insight only arises when there is sufficient mindfulness and concentration in our practice.

Practicing mindfulness in every daily activity—walking meditation, washing the dishes, cooking rice, sewing a robe—is to combine the cultivation of merit and the cultivation of wisdom. For example, practicing walking meditation for 15–20 minutes helps to restore balance to body and mind, and creates a solid faith in the Dharma door. Contemplating the body in the body, feelings in feelings, mind in mind, and objects of mind in objects of mind, and taking refuge in the Sangha as the cuckoo bird relies on the earth mound, helps us to dwell securely in the precepts, maintain right faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and insight throughout the twenty-four hours of each day.