Vitarka and
vicāra are two of the
mental factors (
cetasika) present during the first
dhyāna (Pali:
jhāna), and which are absent in the higher jhanas. According to Shankman, "two distinct meanings are suggested [...] one indicating mental activities such as thinking, reflecting, and so on, and the other referring to the mental activity of connecting and sustaining the attention on a meditation object."
Investigation According to
Dan Lusthaus,
vitarka-vicāra is analytic scrutiny, a form of
prajna. It "involves focusing on [something] and then breaking it down into its functional components" to understand it, "distinguishing the multitude of conditioning factors implicated in a phenomenal event." According to Polak, in the
Pali Canon vitarka and
vicāra are mostly related to thinking about the sense-impressions, which
give rise to further egoistical thought and action. The stilling of this thinking fits into the Buddhist training of sense-withdrawal and right effort, culminating in the equanimity and mindfulness of
dhyana-practice. In
Tibetan Buddhism, Ulrich Timme Kragh explains
vitarka (discernment) and
vicāra (discursiveness), as understood by the
Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra, thus: discernment is "the cognitive operation that is responsible for ascertaining what is perceived by the senses by initially labeling it with a name", while discursiveness is "the subsequent conceptual operation of deciding whether the perceived sense-object is desirable and what course of action one might want to take in relation to it". According to Naichen, in
Mahayana Buddhism, "
Samādhi with general examination and specific
in-depth investigation means getting rid of the
not virtuous dharmas, such as greedy desire and hatred, to stay in joy and pleasure caused by nonarising, and to enter the first meditation and fully dwell in it."
Commentatorial tradition According to Stuart-Fox, the Abhidhamma separated
vitarka from
vicāra, and
ekaggatā (onepointedness) was added to the description first
jhāna to give an equal number of five hindrances and five antidotes. The commentarial tradition regards the qualities of the first
jhāna to be antidotes to the five hindrances, and
ekaggatā may have been added to the first
jhāna to give exactly five anti-dotes for the five hindrances. While initially simply referring to thought, which is present at the onset of
dhyāna, the terms
vitarka and
vicāra were re-interpreted by the developing Abhidharma and commentarial tradition. In Theravāda,
vitarka is one of the mental factors that apprehend the quality of an object. It is the "initial application of attention" or the mind to its object, while
vicāra is the sustained application of the mind on an object.
Vitarka is regarded in the Theravāda tradition as an antidote for
thina-middha (sloth and torpor), one of the
five hindrances.
Normal process of discursive thought According to Roderick S. Bucknell, "
vitakka-vicāra, the factor that particularly characterizes the first jhāna, is probably nothing other than the normal process of discursive thought, the familiar but usually unnoticed stream of
mental imagery and verbalization". Martin Stuart-Fox explains, referring to Rhys Davids and Stede, when
vitarka-vicāra are mentioned in tandem, they are one expression, "to cover
all varieties of thinking, including sustained and focused thought. It is thinking in this inclusive sense that the meditator suppresses through concentration when he attains one-ness of mind and thus moves from first to second
jhāna".
Yogacara The
Yogacara term
manas means both "intentionality" or 'self-centered thinking', and "discriminative thinking" (
vikalpa). The process of meditation aims at "non-thinking," stopping both these cognitive processes. ==Vitarka Mudrā==