Āyukusala Thera: Panca–Vasiyo, Five Masteries (of Meditation as well as of Any Job)

(of Meditation as well as of Any Job)

A Dhamma–Talk given at the end of a Mediation Day in Ayukusala Assama, Kananvila
on Esala Poya, the Full Moon of August 11th, 2003
recorded and transcribed by the Venerable Ayya Vajira

Buddha was teaching Dhamma and meditation not only to the monks and nuns. He was giving instructions to lay people also. So meditation is good for anybody. Buddha was teaching in a different way the laypeople who were trying to live frugal, holy life of brahmacariya, and those who lived as kama–bhogi, that is enjoying sensuality. Most of you who are here enjoy family life, thus we were talking not only about meditation, but also about your caring for children. Buddha was teaching all kinds of people, people of high standing, generals and kings, but also barbers and sweepers, he was teaching courtesans, prostitutes, and also the ladies of high standing, queens and princesses. So Buddha was teaching meditation to anybody who was able to take his instruction and he was teaching each person accordingly.

In the same way, here today, my assistant teachers and myself looked after you; they were checking you and giving you additional instruction according to your personal needs.

Buddha was not just delivering some sasana, some ready made lecture, but he was teaching accordingly, that is anu–sasana, which means that he knew whom is he teaching and what is he teaching in any given situation. Yet there are some principles in the Buddha Teaching that apply generally. These are the Five Masteries, Panca–Vasiyo, used for the methodical procedure in meditation. Today you have already heard about them repeatedly and now I will explain them systematically.

These Five Masteries are something that you should train as skills and also learn the knowledge about them. The first is the mastery in adverting, avajjana–vasi , second the mastery in attaining, samapajjana–vasi , third the mastery in abidance, adhiţţhana–vasi , fourth the mastery in exiting, vuţţhana–vasi , and fifth the mastery in reviewing, paccavekkhana–vasi.

However while teaching these masteries to different persons, we have to take into account their different capabilities. For that the Buddha had the knowledge called indriya–paro–pariyatte nanam, that is, he knew what are the faculties, indriya of different people. He also knew their predispositions, called sattanam asaya–anusaye nanam. This is knowledge what are the inclinations asaya and the pathologies anusaya, what are the personal dispositions. He could see it perfectly. These are so–called Buddha–knowledges. But even now here, there are with us some meditation teachers, like this nun venerable Ayya Vajira or these monks venerable Hitakusala and venerable Akasakusala, who have these knowledges to some extent, too. And they watch you and then can tell what are your dispositions, your asaya and anusaya — according to your bodily position, for example.

Sometimes you sit like this, proudly straight, sometimes like that, as if you are hiding, sometimes slouching or bent on some issue. One can thus see that the person has a certain type of character, a particular asaya, that he has a certain disposition to manifest in his bodily posture. You can really tell the character of a person, when you watch the person how he walks, how he eats, how he cleans his place… I tell you this just to explain what we have been doing with you here today. Now. We need to do this in order to teach you the meditation accordingly.

That is also why I was asking everybody about the personal experience. I understood what you say but also how you say it. Everybody reacts differently — somebody like this, somebody like that. When I throw a cushion to you, it is a test. I see how you catch it, how you place it. I am doing this and then I teach you the meditation accordingly, according to how you are. I was asking you various things already at some previous occasions and I was looking what are your reactions. When I asked you to bring something — for example asking Lal who likes to be seen as a rich man to bring the cartridge for printer, or Chandrasiri who is not that rich to bring the wire or some pictures of Buddha or photocopies of papers on meditation… That was not just because it is something what I would need. Of course I can use that, I can use the wires, I can use the pictures. But I wanted to see how you act, how you react, when you are asked to give something and what you do with whatever is given to you. What are you able to give and how you give. Darshan is a young student with no income, yet he is able to give much. The most valuable is his giving all the capacities of his mind, giving himself to the training. That is why he succeeded to develop jhana in less than a year of practice. But he can take, too. And some of you, like Kumudini, are always giving generously, giving even too much, she knows how to let go, so I have to stop her giving, but I want to see also how she can take…

These are not questions of karma and merit only. These are technical issues of personality diagnosis. How do you take whatever dana I give you. I gave you Dhamma–dana. I want to see what you are doing with that. And according to that I will teach you then. The Buddha was observing his pupils while they were eating. Because if you watch a person eating, you know his character best. And then, accordingly we can teach. Even after we have taught you to eat slowly and mindfully, we can see the differences. So this is for you an explanation of what the teachers of Ayukusala are doing with you.

And now. Now I will teach you the systematic knowledge that is necessary for good meditation progress, that is for progress in any of those meditation techniques you were taught.

Buddha was teaching ten meditation skills, dasa jhana–kosalla. However, as it might be difficult for meditators to remember them all, they were summed up into five only, that is as panca–vasiyo. Vasi means skill or mastership. Skill is kosalla. When you are skilled in meditation, then you are jhana–kusala, as the Buddha said. And the meditation mastery is vasi, thus the development of panca–vasiyo is that what we support you in. These five masteries are described in Visuddhi–Magga. Some people say that Abhidhamma or Visuddhi–Magga do not contain the teaching of the Pali Canon. Nonsense! Also a mahathera who goes teaching meditation in America, was telling me things like that, also a lay Buddhist specialist criticized me for teaching Abhidhamma, which is not, according to him, the genuine Buddha Teaching. They both boasted to teach meditation only according to the Sutta. Then I ask them — monk and layman — what is different in Sutta and in Abhidhamma. They could not say what; they did not know the Tipitaka. They were just talking, those pseudo–masters! But this is an explanation for you so that you know that the panca–vasiyo is something taught according to the Buddha´s word.

The Buddha has elaborated upon ten meditation skills in forty five suttas of Jhana–Samyutta which are recorded in the Khandha–Vagga of the Samyutta Nikaya and the panca–vasiyo is a summary of it. The meditator should be skilled, according to the Buddha, in ten ways: first he should be skilled in entering into the jhana, that is samapatti–kusalo, second skilled in abiding, that is ţhiti–kusalo, third skilled in exiting, vuţţhana–kusalo, fourth skilled in refreshing the mind, that is kallita–kusalo, fifth skilled in the meditation object, that is arammana–kusalo, sixth skilled in the realm of meditation experience, that is gocara–kusalo, seventh skilled in gathering and steering, that is abhinihara–kusalo, eight he should be thorough, sakkaccakari, ninth he should be unremitting, sataccakari, and, finally he should be ingenious, that ssappayakari. In our Ayukusala tradition, we have skillful means, which the Buddha called akkheyya; these are the methodical procedures how to teach each of the ten jhana skills. However, during the first years of meditation training we would teach you just the Panca–Vasiyo, which is the practical summary of those ten.
In the Ayukusala tradition — this nun, these monks here — they are teaching the skillful way of living, ayu is life, kusala means skillful. The meditation is just one part of it. The Buddha was teaching Dhamma as the methodical, skillful mastery in the three realms of life. We wish you happy life, when we say you the blessing digh' ayu veva, supati veva, but we do not stay in the wishes only, we also teach you the practical way how to get long life and happy life. In the Ayukusala we teach good methodical procedures — this is what Buddha was teaching, too. And this skillful kusala mastering of the life ayu covers three realms of training:

First realm is the sila–sikkha, the training of ethically skillful action. Second realm is the adhicitta–sikkha, the meditative mind training. Third is the panna–sikkha, the training that leads to the development of wisdom.

Sila is usually translated as morality, which consists in refraining from unethical deeds. But it can be also trained by means of performing silabbata. Bata or vata are the ritualized procedures, they are the meaningful rituals you do to make your everyday life more beautiful and happy. In the ethical training sila–sikkha we use five decisions as bases padani. But the training is not limited to the ritual of five sikkha–padani. There are many other useful rituals for healing, protection and regulation of social issues. These rituals of silabbata are something very good, but clinging to them, the silabbata–upadana is not good, because it causes cramped attitude to life and prevents you to do good things in a natural way. We should say, when the Buddha was teaching Ayukusala in the realm of sila, he taught how to act in such a way, that you are comfortable and happy. You should be at ease as a result of ethical training.
The Buddha was teaching the ethical training, sila–sikkha as a prerequisite for training of the mind by means of meditation, samadhi–sikkha. This samadhi–sikkha or adhicitta–sikkha is the practice leading to the mind development, which is the proper meaning of the word bhavana. This word bhavana is used for the practice that is called meditation in the Western languages. There is no single word for meditation in Pali; thus we speak about mind development bhavana, or absorption jhana, or recollection anussati, and so on. All these meditative procedures can be trained systematically, if you have the know–how. And this is what I am going to teach you now, the know–how of panca–vasiyo in more detail.

Thus repeat now aloud with me the Pali names of the Five Masteries, the Panca–Vasiyo: the mastery in adverting, avajjana–vasi , the mastery in attaining, samapajjana–vasi , the mastery in abidance, adhiţţhana–vasi , the mastery in exiting, vuţţhana–vasi , and the mastery in reviewing, paccavekkhana–vasi .

Now we know the names of the masteries and we have also some knowledge about them. But this is not yet acquiring the skill. As the third realm of skillful life ayukusala, the Buddha was teaching panna–sikkha, training to develop wisdom. The wisdom panna is not just only knowledge nana; wisdom is something more. In Buddha Teaching, wisdom is the knowledge, which is practically relevant, which can be directly applied in life mastering and — which is the most important characteristic of panna — wisdom leads to happiness.

Sila–sikkha, samadhi–sikkha, panna–sikkha are the three realms of training that lead to sila–ayukusala, samadhi–ayukusula, panna–ayukusala, skillful mastery in three realms of life. And the knowledge about the methods how to do it counts as wisdom panna.

Now you are instructed Buddhist. You took Triple Refuge Ti–Saranam and made the ethical decisions sikkha–padam in the morning to start this Poya day. Thus you have the sila as basis. Then you got the instruction for samadhi–sikkha and started to meditate. In the evening, before you go home, we shall do the reviewing paccavekkhana, we shall take account of all what we have done. And out of this paccavekkhana we get the wisdom. Paccavekkhana is the source of panna. Paccavekkhana, the reviewing is a very important thing, which is neglected by many meditation instructors and Dhamma teachers. Mastery of the paccavekkhana is the most important skill for developing memory and for developing mindfulness. In Pali memory and mindfulness is called by the same word sati. So those who are practicing paccavekkhana are cultivating both their memory and their mindfulness. That is why in Ayukusala we put so much stress on it. O.K.? So far clear.

Now, before we become more technical with the Panca–Vasiyo, do you have any questions? Can you follow? Good.
I want to make it sure that you yourself estimate your state of mind as the open–mindedness, which is called saddha in Pali. Saddha is the mind's permeability for knowledge. Saddha is not a sort of believing or uncritical confidence as some explain it. In Abhidhamma, the saddha is explained as pasada, that is clearness or permeability. And this is what I need from you. Because it might happen that I am telling here something and some of you cannot get it. Thus I am checking whether you do follow. All right. I need your active participation. I want you to express what you already know about the skills of meditation before talking more about them.
There are five of them: Panca–Vasiyo. So, which is the first one?

Yes, the avajjana–vasi.

Avajjana means turning your mind to something. This includes a preparation to grasp that object of mind, it is a sort of making the program of what you want to do. As an engineer or as a computer man, as a mathematics lecturer or as a businessman you have always some program, some strategy to do what you do. You know what you are going to do and you advert your mind to it. You know: I am going for this meeting, I am going to sell some cinnamon, or I am going to buy some transporter. As a businessman you go sometimes for working lunch. You may go for a business lunch or you may go with family for a pleasure lunch. When you go for the business lunch, you behave differently than when you take your children for outing. So you know where you are going and what you are going to do there. When you are going to meditate you should know in the same way what meditation you are going to do. Is that clear?

When I am going to do some Buddha–anussati, chanting the qualities of Buddha: Iti pi so Bhagava… that is also meditation, but a meditation very different from say vipassana, the insight meditation. Buddha–anussati is working with concepts and images, you are imagining the Buddha when you recite his qualities. Your mind becomes quiet, pacified. Buddha–anussati is a kind of mediation also different from the loving kindness, metta bhavana. When you do metta or karuna–bhavana, you should not work with concepts and images. As I taught you the other day, you have to develop metta out of the intention to do good that is called katu–kamyata chanda in Pali. Metta–bhavana is not just chanting or singing “Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhitata”. Metta is a movement of mind that you realize by doing something technically with your mind. So you should do in your mind a similar movement as you did while kindly placating someone. And similarly with the compassion karuna, you exercise a movement of mind as you did in a situation where you tried to remove someone’s difficulty.

Before you enter to meditation, you should know: I am going to sit for such and such type of meditation or am I going to do walking meditation. In the walking meditation we can practice vipassana, which is the analytical meditation. We analyze the steps as we mindfully notice the lifting, carrying, touching, lifting, carrying, touching… Or while walking you can also do chanting as a part of tranquility meditation, for example the Buddha–anussati. This is then a very different meditation. In the analytical meditation vipassana, you watch what comes to your mind. In the tranquility samatha meditation you press into your mind what you chant. You use the formula of gatha or manta in order to close your mind. In vipassana you open your mind for the really existing phenomena. Thus it is very different whether you accept and receive and perceive or whether you press something and push the words into the mind. Very different! The same with the sitting for various types of meditation. You have to know definitely whether you are going to sit for metta–bhavana or for anapanasati. You should not mix it. Those who say for example that they do metta–vipassana, talk nonsense. Yes, there are some people who mix all together. They say “All I do is meditation.”

If you ask somebody who does sports. You can ask him: “What sort of sports? “ And he answers: “All I do is sports.” Then ask him second question: “Do you use a cricket ball while swimming?” So those doing sports, usually know whether they are going for swimming or for cricket and they dress up differently according to their choice of the sport. But when you ask meditators: “What you do for meditation?” They might say “Oh, I do some anapana and metta and some holy nimitta images.” So some do… Well, you would laugh about a sportsman who mixes swimming, chess, cricket and archery all into one practice.

Do not laugh about those mixing meditators, please. Let us take them very seriously. It may be just a nonsense what they do to themselves, but they may do lot of damage to others when they are in a power position of a teacher or priest.

So the avajjana–vasi is the first important skill in Buddhist meditation. It means to be clear about the decision what meditation you are going to do, for how long are you going to do it, where are you going to do it, in what body posture. You have to advert your mind to all this. And whatever you decide for, you then stick to it! According to this decision you enter