พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าอาการงงๆ อยากนอนต่อหลังตื่นนอน เกิดจากอินทรีย์ในตัวยังไม่แก่กล้าพอ และสอนวิธีตั้งกระบวนการตั้งแต่ตื่นนอน คือล้างหน้าล้างตาให้สดชื่นแล้วตั้งสติกำหนดรู้ต่อเนื่อง เพื่อพัฒนาอินทรีย์ 5 ให้ฝ่ายกุศลมีกำลังควบคุมชีวิตได้มากขึ้นThe teacher explains that the groggy, still-want-to-sleep feeling upon waking comes from the five spiritual faculties (indriya) not yet being strong enough, and teaches a simple morning process — wash your face to become fresh, then hold that freshness with continuous mindful awareness — to strengthen wholesome states over unwholesome ones.
A lay follower asked the teacher: before falling asleep, the mind rests in and , but upon waking there's often a groggy feeling, as if still wanting to sleep more — even while knowing that doing good and building merit is the task at hand, and that there's still a lot of defilement present. How should this be corrected?
The teacher answered that this happens because one's inner mastery isn't yet strong enough. This inner mastery is called the “indriya” — the spiritual faculties. We've heard it said that someone has “mature faculties,” which makes reaching the easier. Having mature faculties means having all five qualities that give mastery over oneself: , wisdom, , effort, and concentration. Concentration can come before effort, or effort before concentration, but mindfulness always comes first — which is why people traditionally say “-panya” (mindfulness-wisdom) together. Mindfulness and wisdom bring faith; once faith arrives, it gives rise to effort — effort directed toward a worthy goal, namely a noble and good life. That effort keeps drawing us toward the goal, while concentration holds us fixed on it. From there, things gradually develop.
But as long as life still carries defilement, freshness and vitality keep getting worn away. So we need to keep building up these qualities. On waking, wisdom needs to be there; mindfulness needs to rise up, and wisdom along with it — reflecting on why we were born, that our time in life is precious, and asking why we'd let it slip by. Enough sleep is enough. Once we're convinced of that — that's faith — it gives rise to the effort to get up and wash our face until we feel fresh. Without washing up, we just stay drowsy and want to sleep more. But once we get up and wash our face, the grogginess clears.
This is because life runs like a system, a process. Human beings and all living things sustain themselves through systems, so problems have to be solved at the level of the system. Once awake, let the process run: the next step is washing the face to become fresh. Once fresh, we take that freshness and place it into continuous awareness — staying alert, not drifting into unwholesome states — so as to draw merit in. The next step in the process is to purify the mind toward : liberation from the defilements that create bondage, moving from a coarser dimension toward a more refined one, so that grows in proportion and loses its strength.
The more we purify and free ourselves, moving from coarse to refined dimensions, the more we come to dwell alongside beings of greater wisdom than ourselves. The stream of merit flowing to us becomes purer, the subtle qualities we gain become finer, and the happiness we experience becomes sweeter. All of this is so that our lives can reach happiness and fulfillment more easily — life becomes lighter, easier, more vibrant, with the unwholesome side shrinking, making life easier to govern, with wholesomeness taking the lead.
This is exactly what the “five indriya” are — the five qualities that develop our capacity for wholesomeness while weakening the unwholesome. Shifting nature away from the unwholesome like this depends on cultivating these five qualities, the five indriya. But reaching full accomplishment depends on the “five bala” (spiritual powers) — a further stage of the same five qualities: mindfulness, wisdom, faith, concentration, and effort. Same qualities, just a different level.