One of the most convincing pieces of evidence that vitakka and vicara means 'thinking and evaluation', as mental recitation of vaci-sankhara (vocalization of speech co-activities/fabrications), is in the practice of 31 body parts concurrently with first jhana and vitakka and vicara (mentally reciting 'body hair, skin, liver,..' etc.).
This is consistent across
EBT, Te Abhidhamma, Abhidhamma commentary which Vimt (vimutti magga) and Vism. (visuddhi magga) are both based on.
What follows is an audit, the definitive proof, in pali and english.
Even in Vism. and Abhidhamma V&V still means mental recitation of speech. After exiting 2nd jhāna, one mentally chants, 'earth [kasina], earth', to get into third jhāna.
Vibhanga Atthakatha explaining why V&V drops out in 2nd jhana
Some more details are given in Vibhanga Atthakatha: (commentary to Abhidhamma Vb that Vism. uses)
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Abhidhamma Piṭaka, vibhaṅgapāḷi, 7. satipaṭṭhānavibhaṅgo, 1. suttantabhājanīyaṃ, 1. kāyānupassanāniddeso
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Tattha kesādīnaṃ vaṇṇasaṇṭhānadisokāsaparicchedavasena upaṭṭhānaṃ uggahanimittaṃ, sabbākārato paṭikūlavasena upaṭṭhānaṃ paṭibhāganimittaṃ. Taṃ punappunaṃ āvajjentassa manasikarontassa takkāhataṃ vitakkāhataṃ karontassa cattāro khandhā paṭikūlārammaṇā honti, paṭhamajjhānavasena appanā pavattati. Pubbabhāge parikammaupacāracittāni savitakkasavicārāni sappītikāni somanassasahagatāni paṭikūlanimittārammaṇāni; appanāpi savitakkasavicārā sappītikā somanassasahagatāva. Bhūmantarena pana mahaggatā rūpāvacarā honti. Paṭikkūlepi ca etasmiṃ ārammaṇe ānisaṃsadassāvitāya somanassaṃ uppajjati, ekattārammaṇabaleneva vā taṃ uppajjati. Dutiyajjhānādīni panettha na nibbattanti. Kasmā? Oḷārikattā. Idañhi ārammaṇaṃ oḷārikaṃ. Vitakkabalenevettha cittekaggatā jāyati, na vitakkasamatikkamenāti. Ayaṃ tāva samathavasena kammaṭṭhānakathā.
| It is said that through repeated advertence, and "stiking by vitakka", at either the 32 parts of the body (kesādīnaṃ), or repulsiveness (paṭikūla), first jhana is attained. However, such approach does not lead to second and further jhanas (Dutiyajjhānādīni panettha na nibbattanti) due to the coarseness of object-support (ārammaṇaṃ oḷārikaṃ). |
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Tattha appanāya pāpitakālato paṭṭhāya sesakoṭṭhāsesu akilamantova appanaṃ pāpessati. Tasmā ‘paṭikūlaṃ paṭikūlan’ti punappunaṃ āvajjitabbaṃ samannāharitabbaṃ, takkāhataṃ vitakkāhataṃ kātabbaṃ. Evaṃ karontassa cattāro khandhā paṭikūlārammaṇā honti, appanaṃ pāpuṇāti. Pubbabhāgacittāni parikammaupacārasaṅkhātāni savitakkasavicārānīti sabbaṃ heṭṭhā vuttasadisameva. Ekaṃ pana koṭṭhāsaṃ manasikarontassa ekameva paṭhamajjhānaṃ nibbattati. Pāṭiyekkaṃ manasikarontassa dvattiṃsa paṭhamajjhānāni nibbattanti. Hatthe gahitapañhāvatthu pākatikameva.
| This passage and the Visuddhimagga description tell that essentially vitakka starts as verbal repetition of the name(s) of object-support, i.e. "earth, earth", "air, air". And these passages explain why such approach does not lead to second jhana and further. |
Vimt. (vimutti magga) you can see conforms to the commentary passsage above.
comments in curly braces are mine: example: {this would be the ordinary 'thinking and evaluation' of MN 19}
VIMT. MINDFULNESS OF BODY
THIRTY-TWO PARTS OF THE BODY
This body consists of head-hair, body-hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, kidneys, liver, heart, spleen, lungs, bile, gorge, grease, fat, brain, midriff, intestines, mesentery, excrement, urine, pus, blood, phlegm, sweat, synovial fluid, tears, nasal mucus, saliva, and is impure.
(speech ceases in first jhana)
(SN 36.11 speech ceases in first jhana)
The new yogin at first should recite vocally these thirty-two parts of the body in the direct and in the reverse order.
He should always vocally recite well and investigate these (thirty-two parts).
Vocally reciting well he should investigate always.
(vitakka & vicara, are speech co-activities)
(MN 44 directed-thought & evaluation are speech co-activities)
Thereafter he should reflect on them only mentally in these four ways:
through colour,
through the formations,
the form,
the basis.
He may, with discrimination, take one or two [433] or more and grasp the crude sign.
Thus the yogin is able to cause the manifestation of three trends of thought,
namely, of colour,
of disliking
and of space.
When the yogin causes the arising of the sign through colour,
he is able to meditate with facility through the colour kasina.
When he causes the arising of the sign through disliking he is able to meditate with facility on impurity.
When the yogin causes the arising of the sign through space, he is able to meditate with facility on the elements.
(to get to 4th jhana)
If the yogin practises on the kasinas, he will get to the fourth meditation, jhana.
(to get to first jhana)
If the yogin practises on impurity, he will get to the first meditation, jhana.
(for access concentration only)
If he practises on the elements, he will get to access-concentration.
(depending on one's temperment)
Here a walker in hate causes the manifestation of the sign through colour;
a walker in passion, through disliking;
and a walker in wisdom, through the elements.
And again, a walker in hate should meditate through colour; {such as mentally reciting 'yellow kasina, yellow kasina'}
a walker in passion, through disliking {this would be the ordinary 'thinking and evaluation' of MN 19}
and a walker in wisdom, through the elements. {this would be the ordinary 'thinking and evaluation' of MN 19}
Vism. Proof is uncertain
section 8: kāya-gatā-sati 🏃:
Unlike the Abhidhamma cmy passage quoted at beginning, Vism. conspicuously avoids using the word 'vitakka'. They instead use the phrase "mentally recite", in contrast to the earlier section on 'vocally reciting' (vacasā sajjhāyena).
♦ yathā pana vacasā, tatheva manasāpi sajjhāyo kātabbo. vacasā sajjhāyo hi manasā sajjhāyassa paccayo hoti. manasā sajjhāyo lakkhaṇapaṭivedhassa paccayo hoti.
on the part where appana samadhi happens (first jhana):
of drought, they hang up some kind of signal there such as a palm leaf, and people come to bathe and drink guided by the signal, [245] but when the way has become plain with their continual traffic, there is no further need of the signal and they go to bathe and drink there whenever they want, so too, when repulsiveness becomes evident to him as he is giving his attention to the meditation subject through the means of the [name-] concept “head hairs, body hairs,” he must surmount the concept “head hairs, body hairs” and establish consciousness on only the actual repulsiveness.
67. 6. As to successive leaving: in giving his attention he should eventually leave out any [parts] that do not appear to him. For when a beginner gives his attention to head hairs, his attention then carries on till it arrives at the last part, that is, urine and stops there; and when he gives his attention to urine, his attention then carries on till it arrives back at the first part, that is, head hairs, and stops there. As he persists in giving his attention thus, some parts appear to him and others do not. Then he should work on those that have appeared till one out of any two appears the clearer. He should arouse absorption by again and again giving attention to the one that has appeared thus.
Vism. seems to be really evasive about exactly what the first jhana appana samadhi is based on. They seem to intentionally describe things vaguely enough to support the Abhidhamma commentary position, which is one uses the directed thought of mentally reciting, 'head hair, head hair' and having that 'vitakka' simultaneously coexist in first jhana.
But according to Vism. redefinition of jhana as 'appana samadhi', this is impossible. Vitakka would stop in upacara access concentration. The proper Vism. way of doing first jhana, such as described in the 10 cemetary contemplations, one would focus attention on a visual kasina of the corpse, or in this case, the body part such as 'head hair', and use that to launch into appana samadhi of first jhana.
If you search for 'absor' in that article (that's the word B. Nanamoli uses to translate appana samadhi), you'll find all the instances. It becomes clear in other passages that the preferred way is using a visual kasina of the body parts as the samadhi nimitta. But Vism. is very cagey and equivocal about what it means for the counterpart sign to switch to the 'repulsive' element. Is that visual, or a vitakka of 'thought of repulsiveness'?
So it seems Vism. intentionally words things vaguely so they can't be seen to clearly contradict Abhidhamma commentary. But in doing so their instructions on this practice are so vague you don't know how to actually perform their meditation. In contrast, Vimt. is very concise, and exceedingly clear. If you want first jhana, you use vitakka as mental recitation of key words and/or thoughts of asubha. If you want higher than first jhana, then you have to abandon vitakka and switch to a color kasina to focus on.
Comparing the overviews of the 40 meditation objects in Vimt. and Vism. respectively, also didn't yield any clues.
The fact that Vism. conspicuously avoids using the word 'vitakka' in this section, and that the Abhidhamma Vb definition of vitakka omits vaci-sankhara from MN 117, Vism.'s motives are awfully suspicious.
Conclusion:
The uniformity and understanding of vitakka as 'thinking', 'mental recitation of unvocalized speech' (vaci-sankhara) across EBT, Abhidhamma, Abhidhamma commentary, Vimutti magga, in the case study of the 31 body parts makes it completely clear and unquivocal. Vitakka means 'directed thought', and not 'initial application' as late Theravada and Vism. assert.
Even though it's not completely clear if Vism. allows first jhana simultaneous with a vitakka of mental recitation ('head hair'), the fact that they deliberately are vague and trying so hard to appear to not contradict earlier Abhidhamma and Vimt., shows that even they understood 'vitakka' to mean 'thinking', even in first jhana!
Reference:
(with copious hyperlinks and named bookmarks to easily find and verify for yourself)
4 jhanas, 4 arupa (using earth kasina as basis)
10 stages of corpses
10 recollections
(7th recollection): 16aps breath meditation
(9th recollection): kaya gata sati
(Ch. 8, section 5) 4bv: brahma viharas
40 meditation subjects overview
section 8: kāya-gatā-sati 🏃: vism. associates kgs with 31 body parts
section 9: 16aps breath meditation
4bv: brahma viharas
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