With vitakka, but WITHOUT vicāra: samādhi in 3 ways, the 4th type of samādhi they don't talk about but is used often in oral tradition

 part of a series:  🔗collection of articles on oral tradition

Prime example:

Say you spend 20 min. every morning reciting important sutta passages.

Cetana = volition, intention, you issue an intention to recollect a particular sutta passage

sati = memory, remembering, recollecting that sutta passage

vitakka = is a superficial discursive thinking of the sutta passage you are recollecting, you think about it to the extent that you know the words you're recollecting are accurate or not according to sati's memory of it, or whether the words you recollect seem fuzzy and you're not sure if you misspelled or mis-remembered some parts.

vicāra = evaluation, pondering, exploration of the contents of the linked vitakka that directed your thoughts to a particular part of a memorized sutta passage.  Vicara is part of Dhamma-vicaya-sambjojjhanga awakening factor, it's evaluating the vitakka dhamma you recollected and determining it's meaning, considering whether that Dharma is accurately remembered, properly understood, whether it's true Dharma or corrupted Dharma. 

In the samādhi in 3 ways  (which map into 4 jhanas),  they have:

1. with both vitakka and vicara: Your superficially thinking about the sutta passage memorized, and your deeply thinking about its meaning.

2. without vitakka and some vicara: an example would be out of 4 satipatthana, you've isolated on just a small section of citta anupassana and pondering that part of 4sp. 

3. without vitakka and without vicara: You're in a samadhi where you're no longer using verbalized thinking that contains linguistic constructs, only subverbal attention (manasi karoti) to citta sankhara (feelings and perceptions for example). For example, you could perceive and know (pajānāti) whether you're in 3rd jhana or not without having to verbalize unspoken thoughts (vitakka) of, "Am I in third jhana?"

4. The fourth way to permutate V&V, is having vitakka but without vicara

The suttas don't talk about this, but in an oral tradition, you would use this quite often when you are in the process of memorizing a passage.

How do you memorize? You verbally recite, or mentally recite the passage in the form of sati (memory) containing vitakka (verbal thoughts of the words in the sutta).

And as you're reciting what you are memorizing, vitakka is thinking about what you're reciting to the extent that you know if you're reciting correctly or not (mispelling, mispronunciation, jumbled or incorrect memory, possible missing section, etc.). 

But you're not doing 'vicara', not evaluating the meaning of the passage.

Right way of using the 4th type of "samadhi in 3 ways"

In other sutta passage, the Buddha refers to the act of memorizing and reciting suttas as a samadhi practice. It's is a fundamental feature of an oral tradition, practiced in those cultures that use it, not just in Buddhism.

So this 4th type of samadhi is what you use when you are properly memorizing suttas.

People who memorize wrongly, is a sign of low quality samadhi.

WRONG way of using the 4th type of "samadhi in 3 ways"

Unfortunately, this happens a lot in the modern world.

People chant suttas in pali, and think about and understand to the extent that they're reciting accurately (superficial vitakka thinking), but they have no idea about the meaning of what they're reciting (lack of vicara and dhamma-vicaya-sambojjhanga).

Not just in buddhism, but in many religions.

People chant things in Latin, other foreign or archaic languages like a magic mantra and have no idea what they're saying. 

It's not completely useless, but it's a tragic underutilization of your time.

If you've already taken the trouble to memorize valuable teachings, and are spending time reciting it everyday, you might as well benefit fully. While you recite, evaluate and deepen your understanding each time you recite it (vicara  & dhamma-vicaya-sambojjhanga) .