..续本文上一页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.

　　* * *

　　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.

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