The Four Forms of Acumen

1. Attha-patisambhida: acumen with regard to meaning.

2. Dhamma-patisambhida: acumen with regard to mental qualities.

3. Nirutti-patisambhida: acumen with regard to linguistic conventions.

4. Patibhana-patisambhida: acumen with regard to expression.

1. Acumen with regard to meaning means knowing how to explain the Buddha's shorter teachings in detail and how to draw out the gist of a detailed teaching so that listeners will have a correct understanding in line with the Buddha's aims. Even if you have a lot to say, you get to the point; even if you have only a little to say, you don't leave out anything important. Wrong words you can turn into right ones, and explanations that are correct but crude you can make more subtle without leaving anything out.

2. Acumen with regard to mental qualities means knowing how to distinguish the wise qualities from unwise ones, establishing the first as good, which ought to be followed, and the second as evil, which ought to be avoided. You know how to explain their various levels, classifying the unwise as common, intermediate, and subtle, and then know which wise qualities are suitable for countering each sort: Virtue does away with common defilements; concentration does away with intermediate defilements; and discernment, subtle defilements. This is knowledge about mental qualities. The next step is to develop virtue to do away with the more common forms of greed, hatred, and delusion; to develop concentration to do away with the hindrances; and discernment to do away with the fetters (sanyojana).

Acumen with regard to mental qualities thus means to distinguish the various types of qualities and then to put the wise qualities into practice until the supreme quality — nibbana — is realized. Simply knowing about the wise qualities, but not developing them, runs counter to the Buddha's reasons for teaching about them in the first place.

3. Acumen with regard to linguistic conventions refers to the ability to know the individual with whom you are speaking (puggalaññuta), and how to speak with different types of people so as to be in keeping with their knowledge and background (parisaññuta). You know that you have to speak this way with that lay person, and that way with this; that this group of monks and novices has to be addressed in such and such a way, in line with their various backgrounds. You know how to make people understand in their own language — how to speak with farmers, merchants, and kings, varying your language so as to fit the person you are speaking to. This form of acumen, contrary to what people normally believe, doesn't refer to the ability to speak the external language of birds or mice or what-have-you. Even if we could speak their language, what good would it do? If anyone can actually speak these languages, good for them. The Buddha's main interest, though, was probably in having us know how to speak with people in such a way that our words will meet their needs. Only those who have this ability qualify as having acquired this form of acumen.

4. Acumen with regard to expression refers to being quick-witted in discussing the Dhamma and its meaning, knowing how to put things in apt way so as to keep ahead of your listeners. This doesn't mean being devious, though. It simply means using strategy so as to be of benefit: putting common matters in subtle terms, and subtle matters in common terms; speaking of matters close at hand as if they were far away, of far away matters as if they were close at hand, explaining a base statement in high terms or a high statement in base terms, making difficult matters easy, and obscure matters plain. You know the right word to cut off a long winded opponent, and how to put things — without saying anything false or dubious — so that no one can catch you. To be gifted in expression in this way means not to be talkative, but to be expert at talking. Talkative people soon run themselves out: people expert at talking never run out no matter how much they have to say. They can clear up any doubts in the minds of their listeners, and can find the one well-chosen word that is worth more than a hundred words.

The skills classed as the four forms of acumen refer only to the skills of this sort that come from the practice of tranquillity and insight meditation.

The three skills, the eight skills, and the four forms of acumen arise only in the wake of jhana. When classed according to level, they are two: sekha-bhumi, i.e., any of these skills as mastered by a stream-winner, a once-returner, a nonreturner, or by a person who has yet to attain any of the transcendent levels; and asekha-bhumi, any of these skills as mastered by an arahant.

The only one of these skills that's really important is asavakkhaya-ñana, the knowledge that does away with the mental effluents. As for the others, whether or not they are attained isn't really important. And it's not the case that all Noble Ones will attain all of these skills. Not to mention ordinary people, even some arahants don't attain any of them with the single exception of the knowledge that does away with mental effluents.

To master these skills, you have to have studied meditation under a Buddha in a previous lifetime.

This ends the discussion of jhana.

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At this point I would like to return to the themes of insight meditation, because some people are bound not to be expert in the practice of jhana. Even though they may attain jhana to some extent, it's only for short periods of time. Some people, for example, tend to be more at home investigating and figuring out the workings — the logic of cause and effect — of physical and mental phenomena, developing insight into the three inherent characteristics of inconstancy, stress, and "not-selfness," practicing only a moderate amount of jhana before heading on to the development of liberating insight.

Liberating insight can be developed in either of two ways: For those experts in jhana, insight will arise dependent on the fourth level of rupa jhana; for those not expert in jhana, insight will arise dependent on the first level of jhana, following the practice of threshold concentration. Some people, when they reach this point, start immediately investigating it as a theme of insight meditation, leading to complete and clear understanding of physical and mental phenomena or, in terms of the aggregates, seeing clearly that the body, feelings, mental labels, mental fashionings, and consciousness are inherently inconstant, stressful, and not-self, and then making this insight strong.

If this sort of discernment becomes powerful at the same time that your powers of mindfulness and alertness are weak and slow-acting, though, any one of ten kinds of misapprehension can occur. These are called vipassanupak-kilesa, the corruptions of insight. Actually, they are nothing more than by-products of the practice of insight, but if you fall for them and latch onto them, they become defilements. They can make you assume wrongly that you have reached the paths, fruitions, and nibbana, because they are defilements of a very subtle sort. They are also termed the enemies of insight. If your powers of reference aren't equal to your powers of discernment, you can get attached and be led astray without your realizing it, believing that you have no more defilements, that there is nothing more for you to do. These ten defilements are extremely subtle and fine. If you fall for them, you're not likely to believe anyone who tells you that you've gone wrong. Thus you should know about them beforehand so that you can keep yourself detached when they arise. But before discussing them, we should first discuss the exercises for insight meditation, because the corruptions of insight appear following on the practice of the exercises.