Vitarka-vicāra


In Buddhism, vitarka, "applied thought," "attention," and vicāra, "discernment," "sustained thinking," are qualities or elements of the first dhyāna.
In the Pali canon, Vitakka-vicāra form one expression, referring to "the normal process of discursive thought," which is suppressed by concentration in the second jhāna. The Buddhist commentarial tradition, as represented by the contemporary Theravāda, interprets vitarka and vicāra as the initial and sustainted application of attention to a meditational object, which culminates in the stilling of the mind.

Etymology

Vitarka, "thoughts," "applied thought," "applied attention." its roots are:
Vitarka may refer to mental activities that are manifest both in normal consciousness and in the first stage of dhyana. In general, it means "thought," "applied thought," or "distracted thoughts." According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, "In the Suttas, the word Vittaka is often used in the loose sense of thought, but in the Abhidhamma it is used in a precise technical sense to mean the mental factor that mounts or directs the mind towards an object."
Vicāra means "thought" or "idea." Its roots are:
Vitarka investigates things roughly, while vicāra investigates things exactly.

First ''dhyāna''

Vitarka and vicāra are two of the qualities or elements of the first dhyāna, which are absent in the higher jhanas.
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."
Ulrich Timme Kragh explains vitarka and vicāra, 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 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.
According to Stuart-Fox, the Abhidhamma separated vitarka from vicāra, and ekaggatā 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 in 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, one of the five hindrances.
The Yogacara term manas means both "intentionality" or 'self-centered thinking', and "discriminative thinking". The process of meditation aims at "non-thinking," stopping both these cognitive processes.

Vitarka Mudrā

The Vitarka mudrā, "mudra of discussion," expresses vitarka, joining the tips of the thumb and the index together, and keeping the other fingers straight. This mudra has a great number of variants in Mahāyāna Buddhism, and is also known as and Vyākhyāna mudrā.