Thirty-Seven Factors Of Awakening
SYNTHESIZING THE PATH
First Floor - Small Vehicle • Module 18
Introduction: The Complete Inventory
Estimated time to complete: 1:45 minutes
The Complete Inventory
If someone asked us right now to name every quality we have been cultivating thus far— mindfulness, concentration, ethical conduct, investigative clarity, equanimity— could we produce a complete list? Could we say how they fit together into one cohesive path?
The Buddhist tradition can. It is called the thirty-seven factors conducive to awakening (bodhipakṣadharma): a complete inventory of every quality cultivated on the path from confused ordinary being to fully liberated arhat. These thirty-seven factors include everything the tradition considers necessary for awakening. And here is the thing: we have already been working with most of them.
Do you remember in the Noble Truth of the Path, when we initially divided the Buddhist path into three essential areas of training—which could be broken down further into the so-called Noble Eightfold Path—that spanned the five types of paths to awakening? Do you recall the picture of Buddhist practitioners climbing the hill, entering the stream and floating downhill to the ocean? This module shows how the five paths are broken down into seven groups of factors—with thirty-seven factors in total—necessary for mastering the different aspects of the three trainings.
Why do these thirty-seven factors matter? They represent the Buddhist path to awakening spelled out in full. So if you want to understand how all the pieces of the path are actually supposed to fit together — whether you are studying it intellectually, using it to inform your own secular meditation practice, or actively pursuing the path as Buddhist practitioners —then this list of factors will provide a more complete picture.
Traditionally, these thirty-seven factors are broken into seven groups and taught in one of two ways: (a) as a gem with thirty-seven interdependent facets to be polished together from the beginning or (b) as aspects of practice emphasized and mastered sequentially at different stages along the five paths. We will emphasize the second of these traditions here—which is associated with the Indian and Tibetan traditions we are tracking in this course—but we should think of all thirty-seven factors as available from the beginning.
But before diving into the sequential presentation, it is worth keeping in mind that material like this requires several passes. In the first pass, try to get the overall arc. In the second, try to see the larger patterns and assimilate the information. In the third, start to learn more about each term and piece together the relationships between them. Over time, if we reflect and practice between each pass, the meaning will start to fill itself in, just like going to sleep in the middle of working on a hard problem, then waking up in the morning to find the solution much easier.
The Complete Map: Seven Groups across Five Paths
[37 FACTORS — FIVE PATHS CHART EMBED] - Coming soon
The chart above is our reference companion for what follows. Notice first how the thirty-seven factors are divided on the left side of the chart between the five paths — Accumulation, Preliminary Practice, Seeing, Cultivation, No More Learning — that we mapped out when we studied the Fourth Noble Truth.
Now count the seven bolded groups of factors—each of which is emphasized at a particular stage within those five paths. 4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 37. The seven groups are not random collections but reflect how the emphasis in practice actually changes for practitioners as they face different types of challenges at each stage along the path.
Next, notice on the right how each of the seven groups relates to the three trainings—either one of them at a time or all three at once.
Finally, if you scan the names of the thirty-seven factors, you may notice many terms are repeated because they continue to be relevant at different parts of the path. The most central of these repeated qualities is mindfulness. Why? Because it is the single quality that runs through all three trainings: as an ethical awareness it supports conduct, as sustained attentiveness it supports meditation, as investigative observation it supports wisdom. For this reason, mindfulness recurs in virtually every group and—in stage 4—forms the foundation of the seven factors of awakening on the path of cultivation.
Overview of the Five Paths
Here is the logic of each stage, to keep in mind as we walk through the details:
| Path | Challenge | Logic |
|---|---|---|
| Accumulation | Gathering the requisites | Learning how to observe → how to apply oneself → how to see |
| Preliminary Practice | Practicing with conviction | Refining the five faculties until breakthrough |
| Seeing | Breaking through | Being transformed by liberating insight |
| Cultivation | Mastering the practice | Becoming intimately familiar with all aspects of awakening |
| No More Learning | Being completely liberated | Fully integrating all factors into one way of being |
Learning → Refining → Being transformed → Becoming familiar → Fully Integrating. Each transition represents a different kind of challenge, which is why the tradition assigns different groups to each stage.
Explanation of the Seven Groups
What follows walks through all seven groups, one stage at a time. Most of what we encounter will be familiar. The point is seeing how it all is supposed to fit together and be mastered sequentially.
Stage 1: The Path of Accumulation — Learning (the 12 factors in scaffolded sets of four)
| Group | Factors | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Four Applications of Mindfulness | body, feelings, mind, phenomena | 4 |
| Four Proper Exertions | prevent, abandon, develop, sustain | 4 |
| Four Bases for Superpowers | aspiration, perseverance, mindset, investigation | 4 |
Four Applications of Mindfulness.
The path begins by learning the four applications of mindfulness to observe our bodily sensations, our painful, pleasurable, and neutral feelings, our calm or active mental states, and our experience of everything— the five aggregates, the twelve links, the five hindrances, the factors of awakening, and the Four Noble Truths. These four applications are not separate meditations practiced one at a time. They are four increasingly subtle lenses through which we can investigate any moment of experience. They come first because without the ability to observe what is happening, none of the other factors are possible.
When these are mastered and effortless awareness of our own mental activity develops, the four applications open the door to applying ourselves more wisely — for our own benefit and for others.
Four Proper Exertions. If we have been practicing mindfulness in trying to act ethically, we have been doing these all along — we just may not have known their name. The four proper exertions describe the strategic aims that mindfulness serves on the path: prevent negative mental states that have not yet arisen from arising; abandon negative mental states that have already arisen; develop positive mental states that have not yet arisen; sustain or even strengthen positive mental states that have already arisen.
We already do these in meditation. We notice a distraction arising and choose not to follow it. We recognize we have been lost in thought and return to the breath. We cultivate loving kindness when it is not already present. We sustain concentration once it has stabilized. And in daily life: we catch irritation before it takes hold, release a grudge that has already formed, deliberately cultivate patience, sustain an approach that is already working.
The exertions come after mindfulness because we cannot prevent a negative state if we do not notice it forming. Mindfulness observes; the exertions put that clarity to work.
When these are mastered, we are ready to harness the concentrated power that makes transformation possible.
Four Bases for Superpowers. The name sounds dramatic, but the content is surprisingly down to earth. These four describe the psychological foundations that make deep concentration and insight possible: aspiration — the genuine wish to practice and realize the way things are; perseverance — sustained effort in the face of challenges; the proper mindset (citta) — the open-minded attitude that wants to know; and investigation — the inquisitive examination that does not settle for vague answers.
The tradition calls them “bases for superpowers” because when any one of these is joined with deep concentration, it becomes a powerful force for discovering the truth that transforms. Aspiration without concentration is mere wishing. Concentration without aspiration has no direction. Together, they produce extraordinary results — hence “superpowers,” which here refers less to supernatural abilities than to the transformative capacity of deeply focused and intentional practice.
These four bases for superpowers come third because they build on both observation and correctly directed effort. When these are mastered, we have gathered all the requisites and are ready to climb the hill.
The overall progression: start to observe → apply ourselves wisely → open ourselves to practice aimed at transforming our lifeworld. And notice something: the entire three-training structure is already present in embryonic form. Mindfulness is the foundation of training in meditation. The proper exertions mirror the training in ethical conduct by determining what helps or harms. The bases for superpowers — joining concentration with investigation — anticipate the training in wisdom through the union of śhamatha and vipaśhyanā.
Stage 2: The Path of Preliminary Practice — Refining until Breakthrough (the five faculties to sharpen)
| Group | Factors | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Five Faculties | faith, perseverance, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom | 5 |
Glancing at the chart, we will notice something odd: the next two groups contain exactly the same five qualities. Why list them twice? Because the tradition is showing how the same potentials are like dormant faculties or awakened powers depending on whether the practitioner is still working toward breakthrough or has already experienced it. In this path, the preliminary practice is conceptually aimed at discovering the way things are by awakening the five faculties. Whereas the subsequent practice—on the Path of Seeing and Path of Cultivation—is based on having already seen directly the way things are and stabilizing that realization through the five powers.
To refine until breakthrough, these five faculties distill everything cultivated on the Path of Accumulation and use the four applications of mindfulness in a focused way to investigate directly the way things are from the perspective of the four hallmarks. Each faculty feeds the next: faith fuels perseverance, perseverance sustains mindfulness, mindfulness enables concentration, concentration supports wisdom, and wisdom deepens faith.
Faith or confidence — trust in the path, confidence that investigation will yield insight. At this stage: trust develops mostly through intellectual study and reflection.
Perseverance — sustained exertion. At this stage: making the effort to develop the habit of practice.
Mindfulness — the ability to stay present and recollect what we are investigating. At this stage: catching the wandering mind within moments.
Concentration — the ability to focus our attention meditatively on whatever we choose. At this stage: sustaining focus for stretches of time.
Wisdom — discernment that investigates the nature of our experience. At this stage: investigating experience, moving from conceptual research questions to non-conceptual experience through the four stages of vipaśhyanā.
All five faculties balance each other. Faith without wisdom is blind — we might be devoted to something that does not withstand scrutiny. Wisdom without faith is dry — we might understand intellectually but lack the inspiration to persist. Concentration—developed through the nine stages of śhamatha we studied earlier—must be balanced with perseverance: too much effort creates agitation, too much concentration without enthusiastic effort creates dullness. Mindfulness sits at the center, monitoring the balance between all of these.
According to all Buddhist traditions, the Path of Preliminary Practice involves some form of retreat practice — immersive periods of sustained meditation alone or in groups — which is more conducive to personal progress. The logic is straightforward: daily practice helps us focus on investigating our experience, but when we return to our busy lives after each session, we become easily distracted. Intensive practice over days or weeks creates conditions where we can focus long enough to sharpen our faculties. Even short retreats of two or three days can produce a qualitative shift — not because anything mystical happens, but because setting aside distractions for an extended period lets attention, concentration, and investigative clarity build on themselves in ways that scattered daily sessions cannot replicate. At a certain point of retreat, these faculties are mastered and a sudden but permanent breakthrough becomes possible.
Stage 3: The Path of Seeing — Being transformed through insight (the five powers that develop)
| Group | Factors | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Five Powers | faith, perseverance, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom | 5 |
Same five qualities. So what changes? Everything. The breakthrough of direct seeing — the first direct, non-conceptual perception of the Four Noble Truths — transforms each developing faculty into an unshakeable power. Our enthusiastic trust in the practice becomes a confident conviction born from experience of the way things are. Effortful perseverance in practice becomes effortless preference for the truth. Intermittent mindfulness becomes continuous meta-cognitive awareness. Hard-won concentration becomes natural focus. Investigative wisdom cannot help but see through habitual ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. This is the moment when conceptual understanding becomes something lived — which is why the tradition calls it the Path of Seeing.
In the image of the five paths, we reach the top of the hill. Remember the practitioners entering the stream? This is where they enter it. Once mastered, the faculties become powers — carried forward like the downhill stream.
Stage 4: The Path of Cultivation — Becoming familiar (the seven factors of awakening)
| Group | Factors | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Seven Factors of Awakening | mindfulness, investigation, perseverance, joy, calmness, concentration, equanimity | 7 |
We first encountered these in the “phenomena” section of the Four Applications, where we were invited to notice any qualities supportive of investigation. Now we can name the full set — and see why they become critical at exactly this stage.
What is the biggest difficulty after the breakthrough? Two habits, and they are opposites. A practitioner can get overstimulated by the profundity of what has been seen — too much inquisitiveness, not enough focus. Or a practitioner can sink into overly calm concentration and lose investigative sharpness — too much focus, not enough inquisitiveness. The challenge at this stage is fundamentally about familiarizing ourselves with the right balance of focus and inquisitiveness.
Mindfulness sits at the center, balancing two groups of three. The first three support inquisitiveness; the second three support focus.
The first three are stimulating: discerning phenomena — precise inquiry into what is actually present; perseverance — engaged energy that sustains investigation; and joy — the natural delight that arises when investigation is going well and insight begins to dawn.
The second three are calming: relaxed adaptability — physical and mental ease, the quality we earlier compared to a skilled athlete’s composure under pressure; meditative concentration — unified, one-pointed attention; and equanimity — balanced awareness that neither grasps at pleasant experience nor pushes away the unpleasant.
If the stimulating factors dominate, the mind becomes agitated and restless despite its insight. If the calming factors dominate, the mind becomes peaceful but stagnant — calm without clarity. Together, these seven describe a mind that is simultaneously alert and settled, engaged and at ease. When these are mastered, the practitioner floats downstream — carried by the current, but still steering.
Stage 5: The Path of No More Learning — Effortless Integration (the Noble Eightfold Path)
| Group | Factors | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Noble Eightfold Path | proper view, proper intention, proper speech, proper action, proper livelihood, proper effort, proper mindfulness, proper concentration | 8 |
We may remember how the three trainings can be subdivided into the Noble Eightfold Path. Under wisdom there is proper view and proper intention. Under ethics there is proper speech, proper conduct, and proper livelihood. Under meditation there is proper effort, proper mindfulness, and proper meditative concentration.
Why is the Noble Eightfold Path—the expanded list of the three trainings—last in this list? Because at this stage practitioners have mastered all factors and effortlessly integrate them into a single way of being. They have no need to develop any new qualities. Proper effort contains the four exertions. Proper mindfulness contains the four applications. The elaborate inventory of thirty-seven resolves back into the simplest formulation — eight factors under three trainings — because at the point of mastery, the separate components are no longer experienced as separate. Like a musician who, after years of practicing scales, arpeggios, and rhythmic patterns individually, simply plays music. In our prior image of the five paths, this was depicted as the great ocean into which the stream flows.
✦ A few Insights:
When I first learned mindfulness meditation, a Zen teacher told me to just sit there and be a buddha. He said I did not need to do anything but that. I got a lot out of just sitting there. But later, when I encountered the thirty-seven factors in my own studies, I had no idea why anyone needed to learn them. Then after learning more and reflecting, I began to see the point. According to the other Buddhist traditions, mindfulness forms the basis for the entire path, but it must be joined by many other qualities—which traditional Zen practice includes—in order to successfully lead to awakening.
This is worth pausing on, because the contemporary Mindfulness movement—which claims Zen as inspiration—would have us believe that mindfulness requires none of these additional qualities in order for the practice to work. The key question for this claim is what precisely is the work that contemporary mindfulness does.
If we were to ask Buddhists, they might say that contemporary mindfulness practice may well work as a śhamatha to calm the mind and even, in some cases, lead to the common kind of vipaśhyanā insights. But mindfulness cannot lead to the Buddhist goal of awakening—through the other kinds of vipaśhyanā—without all the other thirty-seven factors working together toward that end.
Suffice it to say that learning about the inventory did not give me new things to do. It gave me a better perspective about what meditation was already doing, clearing up misconceptions I had carried for years about what the Buddhist practice of “mindfulness” actually involves. According to the tradition, simply taking in the landscape by just reading this list will eventually lead to the wisdom gained through study. Reflection and practice will later fill it with meaning.
If Buddhist meditators were interested in serious retreat practice, their teacher might suggest reading through this list at least a few times. They might not need to memorize it entirely to guide their practice. But it would certainly help reduce unfounded expectations about where they are headed and how they will get there. For non-Buddhist meditators, it helps just to know the map exists. Each time we return to it after more study, more practice, and more life, it will say something different to us. This is not just because we will be reading it with more mature eyes but because our goals often change without us knowing it.
? Questions for Reflection
These questions are designed as ongoing investigations. If you are practicing meditation, let them inform your sessions over time. If you are studying theory, use them to think critically about the frameworks you are learning.
1. Recognition As you read through the seven groups, which factors did you most readily recognize from your own experience? Which felt most foreign? The gap may indicate where your practice is naturally strong and where it could benefit from attention.
2. Balance The tradition emphasizes that faith and wisdom must balance each other, as must effort and concentration, with mindfulness at the center. Do you notice an imbalance — effort without ease, or ease without effort? Conviction without investigation, or investigation without trust? What would a more balanced approach look like?
3. Faculty and Power Consider one of the five — faith, perseverance, mindfulness, concentration, or wisdom. Can you sense the difference between having it as a developing capacity and having it as something unshakeable? Is there a quality where you can feel that what once required effort is starting to become more natural?
4. The Effort Strategy The four proper exertions — prevent, abandon, develop, sustain — describe a comprehensive approach to working with mental states. If you meditate, see if you can identify moments where each occurs naturally during a session. If you do not meditate, try applying the framework to daily life: when do you catch a negative reaction before it takes hold? When do you release one that already has? When do you deliberately cultivate a quality like patience or focus? When do you sustain an approach that is already working?
5. One Practice, Many Descriptions One traditional approach teaches that the thirty-seven factors are one integrated practice described from different angles. Does that match your experience? Or does the path still feel fragmented — ethics over here, meditation over there, wisdom somewhere else? What would it mean for all three trainings to operate simultaneously in a single moment of awareness?
Looking Ahead
One question remains. What happens when all thirty-seven are perfected? What does it actually look like when the path reaches its conclusion? The tradition has a word for someone who has completed this entire journey: arhat — one who has exhausted the causes of suffering. The final module on this floor explores what arhathood means, what it does and does not entail, and why the Small Vehicle path, for all its completeness, is not the end of the story. The Great Vehicle floor awaits — with a different diagnosis, a wider scope, and an expanded understanding of what awakening is for.