What are vitakka and vicara?

Chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Kwan Yin as Avalokiteshvara

The classic Heart Sutra translation by Edward Conze uses a strange term, "thought coverings." What he was translating was new to English, the technical Buddhist psychological terms vitakka and vicara. They are not "thinking" as such. The enlightened scholar-monk Pa Auk Sayadaw translates them as initial application and sustained application of mind.

That's somewhat like thought but completely different from discursive thinking (the wandering mind). Ven. Thanissaro -- who often makes idiosyncratic and utterly misleading word choices spread widely on accesstoinsight.org -- errs terribly to translate them as "thinking and pondering," but the mistake is understandable when we look at Bhikkhu Bodhi's treatment of these terms: They refer to a component of thinking, the "mounting of the mind on the object" then "staying on it."

They are two factors of meditative absorption (jhana) found in the first absorption, so they are crucial to understand. There is no thinking in the first absorption, only awareness. In yogic terms the absorptions and meditations (dhyanas and dharanas), it is as if the vrittis are settling and undisturbed. The state is full of brightness and singlepointed. It is too close to normal conscious, which has thinking, for comfort. So one moves on to the second absorption, which is better, has fewer faults, is more peaceful.

The Buddha compared them by analogy to the flying of a bird. A bird on a branch wishing to soar first jumps and flaps and struggles then settles down and glides through the air almost effortlessly. The flapping is like vitakka initially applying the mind to the meditation object, having to bring it back again and again. But after a time it stays apparently without effort. It sustains, and that the vicara.

Let's check our handy online Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia (ChinaBuddhismEncyclopedia.com):

Vitakka (Sanskrit vitarkah) is a Buddhist term that has been translated as "conception," "application of thought," and so on.

In the ancient Theravada Buddhist tradition, it is defined as the mental factor that mounts or directs the mind towards an object. In the Mahayana tradition, vitakka is defined as a mental factor that investigates things roughly.

Vitakka is identified as: One of the six occasional mental factors within the Theravada Abhidhamma system. It is one of the four changeable mental factors in the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings.

Vitakka is the first of four or five mental factors present in the first jhana (Sanskrit dhyana), the first "meditative absorption."

Explanations
From a Theravada perspective the American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi (Jeffrey Block) explains:

"In the suttas (sutras), 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 [in normal consciousness as well as meditation].

"Just as a king's favorite might conduct a villager to the palace, even so vitakka directs the mind onto the object. In the practice of attaining jhana [meditation, absorption, ecstasy], vitakka has the special task of inhibiting the hindrance [see the Five Hindrances] of sloth and torpor (thina-middha) [mental and physical laziness]."

The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga IV, 88) defines vitakka as follows:

"...Herein, applied thinking (vitakkama) is applied thought (vitakka) [initial application of mind]; hitting upon, is what is meant. It has the characteristic of directing the mind onto an object (mounting the mind on its object).

"Its function is to strike at and thresh -- for the meditator is said, in virtue of it, to have the object touched and struck at by applied thought [application of mind]. It is manifested as the leading of the mind onto an object..."

Nina van Gorkom explains: The Atthasālinī (Book I, Part IV, Chapter I, 114)… uses a simile of someone who wants to “ascend” [to] the king's palace and depends on a relative or friend dear to the king to achieve this.

In the same way the citta [mind moment] which is accompanied by vitakka depends on the latter in order to “ascend” to the object, to be directed to the object. Vitakka leads the citta to the object so that citta can cognize it.

In relation to vicara [sustained application of mind], it is said that: "Vitakka is the directing of concomitant properties towards the object; vicāra is the continued exercise of the mind on that object."

It is also said [apparently by Ven. Thanissaro because who else uses ampersands as if they were proper English?] that: "Vitakka has the characteristic of fixity & steadiness, vicāra that of movement & display." [This would be exactly backward because initially there is gross movement and display, and subsequently there is fixity and steadiness, the increasingly subtle sustain.] More

What is vicara?

Vicara (Sanskrit and Pali vicāra) is a Buddhist term that is translated as "discernment," "sustained thinking," and so on. In the Theravada tradition, it is defined as the sustained application of mind on an object.

In the Mahayana tradition, vicara is defined as a mental factor that finely scrutinizes to discern the specific details.

Vicara is identified as: One of the six occasional mental factors within the Theravada Abhidhamma system. It is one of the four changeable mental factors within the Mahayana Abhidharma teachings and one of four or five mental factors present in the first jhana (Sanskrit dhyana). It is closely associated with the mental factor vitakka.

Explanations
From a Theravada point of view, American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi explains: "The word vicara usually means examination, but here it signifies the sustained application of the mind on the object.

"Whereas vitakka is the directing of the mind [cittas] and its concomitants [cetasikas] towards the object, vicara is the continued exercise of the mind on the object.

The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga IV, 88) defines vicara as follows: "...Sustained thinking [sustained application of mind] (vicaraṇa) is sustained thought (vicāra); continued sustenance (anusañcaraṇa) is what is meant. It has the characteristic of continued pressure on (occupation with) the object. Its function is to keep conascent (mental) states (occupied) with that. It is manifested as keeping consciousness anchored (on that object).

Nina van Gorkom explains: "Vicāra is not the same reality as vitakka. Vitakka directs the citta [mind] to the object and vicāra keeps the citta occupied with the object, “anchored” on it.

However, we should remember that both vitakka and vicāra perform their functions only for the duration of one citta ["mind moment" with "mind" being the "stream of cittas"] and then fall away immediately, together with the citta. Both the Visuddhimagga and the Atthasālinī use similes in order to explain the difference between vitakka and vicāra.

Vitakka is gross, and vicāra is more subtle. We read in the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification IV, 89): "...Applied thought (vitakka) is the first compact of the mind in the sense that it is both gross and inceptive, like the [initial] striking of a bell.

"Sustained thought (vicāra) is the act of keeping the mind anchored, in the sense that it is subtle with the individual essence of continued pressure, like the [sustained] ringing of the bell..." More

How many factors in the First Absorption?

Leigh Brasington (leighb.com/jhana...); Dhr. Seven (ed.), D. Cong, Wisdom Quarterly

Five Factors for the First Jhana - NOT!

There is a widespread misunderstanding that the first jhana (meditative absorption, zen, chan, dhyana) has five factors.

But this is not what is described in the sutras (Buddhist discourses) and is certainly not what the Buddha taught and practiced. The first jhana has four factors. (Yes, four: Look it up; see it in Pali):

1. vitakka - thinking [applied attention]
2. vicara - more thinking, examining [sustained attention]
3. piti - rapture, glee, zest
4. sukha - happiness [contentment]
5. [ekaggata - onepointedness of mind]

In the vast majority of cases -- over 100 sutras -- the first jhana is described as having only the first four factors listed above.

However, the "Teachings in Ultimate Terms" (Abhidharma) and the Commentaries do speak of five factors for the first jhana. 

They add ekaggata ("one-pointedness"). Ekaggata is not mentioned in the sutras because it is not and cannot be part of the formula.

In the first place, vitakka and vicara always and only mean "thinking" and "examining" in the sutras. There is no place where they can be interpreted to mean "initial and sustained attention" or any such thing.

• [EDITORIAL NOTE: The great Burmese Buddhist meditation master Pa Auk Sayadaw, whom Leigh Brasington sat a retreat with IMS in Barre, Massachussets, as witnessed by the present editor, who stood outside the door as they met in conference. The Sayadaw admonished Leigh not to cling to the piti (joy, rapture) that accompanies the initial absorptions no matter how blissful they are. But Leigh had his own extensive experiences, comprehension, and teaching methods, whereas the Sayadaw had the various stages of enlightenment as a result of his own experiences, comprehension, and teaching methods. It is not clear that Leigh can claim that. In addition, Westerners have an aversion to the Abhidharma and other commentarial texts, whereas Burmese Buddhists treasure more than any other Theravada school.]

It is even explicit in the Pali canon that vitakka and vicara refer to thinking in the context of the first jhana. See, for example SN 21:1.

There "Noble Silence" is defined as the Second Jhana because vitakka and vicara are now absent. It is simply not possible to have onepointedness and thinking at the same time.

So experiencing ekaggata in the same jhana as vitakka and vicara makes no sense whatsoever.

 

Furthermore, in the Second Jhana, vitakka and vicara are replaced with vupasama, ajjhattam sampasadanam and ekodi-bhavam -- "inner tranquility" and "unification of mind."

If there were ekaggata in First Jhana, there would be no need to specify the gaining of ekodi-bhavam to replace vitakka and vicara in the Second Jhana.

 

Now to be fair, there are two sutras where five factors are given for the First Jhana and a third sutra where "unification of mind" is mentioned in regard to the First Jhana:

1. M I 294 - MN 43 "The Greater Set of Questions-and-Answers"
2. M III 25-29 - MN 111 "One After Another"
3. S IV 263 - SN 40.1 "The First Jhana" (not ekaggata, but ekodim; the context makes it a real stretch to consider this a fifth factor).

But all of these appear to be "late" sutras written at the close of the Sutra Era and the beginning of the Abhidharma Era. Sutra MN 111 is actually internally contradictory:

It first gives the standard First Jhana formula with vitakka and vicara and then says Ven. Sariputra examined the factors of the First Jhana and found ekaggata.

As mentioned above, you just can't have ekaggata and vitakka and vicara happening at the same time. Of course, this was a problem for the Abhidhammaikas and the commentators. So they redefined vitakka and vicara to mean "initial and sustained attention."

But clearly the Abhidharma has tinkered with the definitions of the meditative absorptions (jhanas), converting the First Jhana into two different states -- one with vitakka and vicara and one with only vicara. There is no basis for this in the sutras except again in a couple of "late" sutras.

And by the time of The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), a compendious commentarial text, the definitions of what constitutes a jhana had diverged significantly from the sutra definitions.

The Visuddhimagga has made the jhanas so difficult that only one in a million who come to meditation can enter the First Jhana (Section XII.8), whereas in the sutras, the monastics (monks and nuns) were all practicing jhana.

(The Buddha didn't have millions of followers but rather probably only a few [or as many as 80] thousand at most. Yet, there are many accounts of monastics successfully practicing the jhanas)

The absorption level described in the Visuddhimagga is so deep that "sounds are a thorn to the First Jhana" as found in AN 10.72 makes no sense at all.

Clearly ekaggata as a factor of the First Jhana is a later addition making the five factors of the First Jhana a later schema.

In fact, looking at the jhanas with the traditional Abhidharma/Commentarial factors misses some of the important information in the sutra schema. See leighb.com/jhanatrd. Source

Listen Up: Jhana Facts

Jhana has five characteristics that have been built up on account of practicing meditation on the breath, so much so that their momentum silences thought and the hindrances and one is able to abide in a mental and bodily stream of wholesomeness. These five characteristics are:

1. Vitakka: initial application of attention (application of mind) to the meditation-object (effort of the mind to return and remain on the object)
2. Vicara: sustained attention (or prolonged examination to the point of penetration and sticking) on the meditation-object, sustaining one's focus for a prolonged period
3. Piti: mental happiness, elation, or exuberance due to successfully being able to remain focused on the meditation-object (which has resulted in a purification by concentration, going from a scattered and weak mind to a collected and powerfully penetrative mind
4. Sukha: pleasant physical sensation, overwhelming euphoria, or bliss due to successfully calming the mind and concentrating (focusing and intensifying) it on the meditation-object
5. Ekagata: one-pointedness of the mind affixed to the meditation-object

A sixth factor comes into play as equanimity replaces sukha.