The Five Strengths (Sanskrit, Pali: pañca bala) in Buddhism are faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. They are one of the seven sets of "qualities conducive to enlightenment." They are parallel facets of the five "spiritual faculties."

Pañca (Sanskrit, Pali) means "five."Bala (Sanskrit, Pali) means "power," "strength," "force."

Faith and Wisdom balance each other, as do Energy and Concentration. The Five Faculties are ‘controlling' faculties because they control or master their opposites. The faculties and powers are two aspects of the same thing.

Thomas Dean "Tom" Rathman (born October 7, 1962) is a former professional football player, a fullback for the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders of the National Football League. Following his playing career, he became a coach in 1995 and is currently the running backs coach for the 49ers.

Rathman was a three-sport star at Grand Island Senior High in central Nebraska. In addition to a state Hall-of-Fame career as a fullback for the Islanders football team, Rathman won a state championship in the high jump in 1980 during his junior year.

Rathman was a three-year letterwinner in football at the University of Nebraska. He finished his college career with 1,425 rushing yards, and averaged over six yards per carry. Often considered the greatest fullback in modern Nebraska history, Rathman set several school position records, some of which still stand, including most yards rushing by a fullback in a single season (881, in 1985) and most career rushing touchdowns by a fullback (twelve). He was noted for his ability to break long runs, especially during his senior year in 1985, when he averaged 7.5 yards per carry.

Marcus Buckingham is a British-American New York Times bestselling author, researcher, motivational speaker and business consultant best known for promoting what he calls "Strengths." Basing most of his writing on extensive survey data from interviews with workers in countries around the world, he promotes the idea that people will get the best results by making the most of their strengths rather than by putting too much emphasis on weaknesses or perceived deficiencies.

Marcus Buckingham graduated from Cambridge University with a master's degree in political science. While studying at Cambridge, he was recruited by educational psychology professor Donald O. Clifton, the founder of Selection Research, Incorporated (SRI). Clifton had co-founded SRI to develop interviews that would allow businesses to identify talents in individuals, in order to match people to the right roles.

SRI acquired The Gallup Organization in 1988, and took on the Gallup name. As part of Gallup, Buckingham became a member of a team working on a survey that measured a broad range of factors that contribute to employee engagement. Based on those surveys and on interviews with thousands of managers, Buckingham published (with coauthor Curt Coffman) First, Break All The Rules (Simon and Schuster, 1999). According to its subtitle, the book describes "what the world's greatest managers do differently" The book became a New York times bestseller and has over a million copies in print. It was also chosen by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten as one of "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" in their book of the same name.