Noble Eightfold Path, Seven Factors of Awakening, Five Mental Faculties, Five Components of Spiritual Power, Four Right Efforts, Four Bases of Mindfulness, and the Four Bases of Spiritual Power. These are the Seven Sets. Each of the individual aspects within the sets can be categorized into one of Five Qualities—Faith, Wisdom, Mindfulness, Concentration, and Energy.
An experienced meditator calls upon the Seven Factors of Awakening to calm the mind, achieve one-pointed concentration, and develop an understanding of the true nature of things and their self. These Seven Factors relate to one of the three broad categories of the Eightfold Path. This category, sometimes called Samadhi, sometimes called concentration, can be called Meditation to avoid translational issues. The other two categories—Wisdom and Morality—don’t suffer the same transnational difficulties. Samadhi is the most common term. The factors are concentration, energy, equanimity, investigation of phenomena, joy, mindfulness, and relaxation.
The Five Mental Faculties1 and the Five Components of Spiritual Power, all of which are aspects of the 37 Limbs of Enlightenment, are intertwined. The Faculties are objective, inert capabilities contained within each person. The Powers are the Faculties harnessed to their full potential toward Enlightenment. The example of the legs, for running, is helpful. If possessing two functioning legs is a Faculty, then training the legs to leap over hurdles is a Power.
The Four Right Efforts, components of the 37 Limbs of Enlightenment, describe actions that control the arising and subsiding of thoughts. This is also considered energy, or Virya (one of the Eight Limbs of the Noble Path). Effort, or energy/Virya, plays a surprisingly prominent role in Buddhist practice. Most people would consider Wisdom or Concentration to be the central component(s) of the Buddhist way of life. While those two aspects are indispensable, it is Virya which is mentioned more than those other qualities by Buddhagosa in his Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification). In that Original Wisdom text held dear to this day by the Theravada, Buddhagosa repeats the importance of effort as indispensable to Enlightenment. The Four Efforts are the prevention of unwholesome states of mind, the abandonment of unwholesome states of mind, the creation of wholesome states of mind, and the maintenance of wholesome states of mind. These correspond to the Perfect Effort branch of the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Fourfold Way to Establish Mindfulness is a straightforward set of prescriptions. Dwelling with a one-pointedness of mind on four aspects of being, a meditator can establish a firm foundation of mindfulness. First, dwell on the body. Second, dwell upon feelings. Third, dwell upon the complexities of the mind (complexities which, when gone wrong, can lead to afflictions like anxiety or depression). Fourth, dwell upon internal and external phenomena.2 3. These correspond to the Perfect Mindfulness branch of the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Four Bases of Spiritual Power are will power, energy, investigation, and consciousness of thought. These four bases aid a practitioner in the development and attainment of concentrative insight (samadhi).
The Noble Eightfold Path is discussed at length elsewhere.
Pali: Bodhipakkhiyā dhammā
Sanskrit: Bodhipakṣa dharma
1Majjhima Nikaya, 152
2Majjhima Nikaya, 10
3Digha Nikaya, 22