Even Watson understands vitakka means the same in first jhāna as it does outside of it.

 

vitakka and vicāra (V&V) are fundamental building blocks in the oral tradition,

not just in Buddhism, but the other major religions in India.

The Dharma you memorize is in the form of V&V,

linguistic, verbal, communicable language.

The Dharma you recite everyday to strengthen your memory,

those are vitakka, directed verbal thoughts.

Vicāra, evaluation of the vitakka thought, is exploring, evaluating, pondering the vitakka thought in more depth.

You recite a line of memorized Dharma, 

you pause to evaluate it more deeply before moving on.

That's vicāra.

If you recite quickly, and you know just enough that you're reciting accurately with no errors,

and you have a superficial understanding of what you just recited very quickly,

that's vitakka.

This is a fundamental, basic law of oral tradition.

You can't arbitrarily redefine V&V (vitakka and vicāra) to take on new meanings 

in specialized contexts, 

because then the oral tradition doesn't work.

V&V doesn't change meaning when you go to first jhāna.

Wallpaper

Watson, the man on the left, is holding up the skull.

That's vitakka, directed thought. 

He's directing their attention to the subject of skull.

Holmes, the man on the right, he's evaluating, pondering, exploring the vitakka thought of skull in more depth.

That's vicāra, evaluation of the vitakka thought raised.

Similarly, 

A monk recites 31 body parts vocally. 

That's not first jhāna because he's speaking out loud (SN 36.11, speech ceases in first jhāna).

The monk then mentally recites 31 body parts, which is Dharma encoded in linguistic, verbal, communicable mental talk. 

That's a kusala skillful Dhamma topic, we're in first jhāna allowable zone here.

Then monk mentally notes, "That skull is dull on this section, but brighter and whiter on that section." 

That's vicāra.

Even Vimuttimagga, an early Abhidhamma treatise, explicitly gives that example

and explicitly says that's first jhāna.

Video: Even Watson understands vitakka means the same in first jhāna as it does outside of it.

All the details, audits, proofs on vitakka and vicāra here

V&V all : every. single. reference. to vitakka in the suttas. 🔗bl
summary:



V&V💭: vitakka & vicāra

Vitakka 💭 = directed verbal thought.
Vicāra 🕵️ = the evaluation of that very same directed thought, not a separate train of thought (SN ^46.3).
Vicāra explores, inspects, discriminates, evaluates, ponders, scrutinizes, discerns, considers the very same thought initially fixed upon by vitakka.
Vitakka decides on a topic, then gives it to vicara to analyze it further, KN Pe 7.72.
V&V are speech vocalization co-activities, MN ^44.5.
  You need to think and evaluate with V&V before coherent speech can be vocalized.

1 – V&V💭 in first jhāna

details: see V&V🌘