Dear DhO: I have been looking at it this way, and this comes from numerous sources, and I want to invite comments. There have been a number of posts to the effect of "I'm trying to meditate but all I get is distracting thoughts instead" or "I have been doing it for some time now but nothing is happening" and a short map of the various factors, the one in my head, might be useful. I find that if I just treat it subjectively without trying to map, I tend to forget the experience. Charting becomes a bridge to retaining the effect on the mind. Here goes

Vitakka - whatever to object, the rising and falling of the abdomen, the breath entering and exiting the nostrils, mantra, yantra, Bible verse, whatever!!! When you have it but it gets broken up or lost. You might forget to remember the object, get lost in thought, but you keep coming back to it, that is vitakka. To sit the whole session in thought and feeling, sensations, etc. and forget to meditate at all - and this happens sometimes, isn't vitakka. Getting some signal, however weak, is vitakka.

Vicara - is staying with the object more or less continuously. Shifting from breath as an object to a distraction or event as an object can be done rather seemlessly, without breaking the vicara

Piti or Piiti is the subject of much translation problem. Weak piiti raises the hair on your skin and causes goose bumps. Strong piiti is like lightening or thunder, the text is clear about the shocking nature of piiti. I refer to this a "rapture" but that translation has problems too. You can get piiti with Vitakka or Vicara or even when not meditating.

Sukkha is simply bliss without the capital "B" In my experience it is a euphoric feeling that rises normally out of Vicara automatically, but sometimes when I begin to sit and do nothing, no practice, no object, I will start to get sukkha and then remember the breath as a result. So sukkha can coexist with Vitakka, Vicara or even be present when not meditating also. Piiti and sukkha can coexist, or can alternate, or can be at various volumes and modulate even.

Upekkha - in equinimity Piiti and Sukkha don't exist -- the waves and surges of piiti and sukkha end here. They are subjective, qualitative states but equinimity is beyond the qualitative and conditioned. Upekkha may incorporate vicara, but something beyond subjective experience arises -

Ekkaggata one pointedness - upekkha and vicara are perfected here. The mind has ceased to wander, has fully ceased to evaluate relative states, such as pleasure or pain, loss or gain, high and low, etc. The meditator has steady attention on the object.

These are all simply descriptive terms and won't happen in a 1-2-3-4-5-6 order. Sometime you might sit hoping for your usual dose of sukkha but instead go from Vitakka to Piiti to Ekkagata. You just can't approach it with an agenda or a model and have it fit in all cases.

For the meditator who is beset by so many distractions and the mind is just running apeshit, good! Actually this is a job well done. You have successfully noticed how your mind has been functioning 24/7 your whole life. By contrasting to the practice of an object, it has revealed its true monkey mind nature. You can't get that without some vitakka.

For the meditator who comes up with a dry experience and has no sukkha or piiti, the best way to go is to keep steering a course towards vicara - keeping the mind anchored in the object. This is sometimes like drilling for oil. No one knows how deep you have to drill or how long it takes, but the oil is there and you will hit it.

I hope this helps. I am moving to a model closer to the nanas now, what are so often discussed at this site, so I wanted to jot this down while I had the thought - your thoughts and input are welcome - this wraps up most of my posts and topics for the time being - going to get bak to reading MCTB for a while -

p e a c e
h a n s e n

one comment here (for the record, and for the pali people) - it is 'upekkha' that is often translated as equanimity, whereas 'ekaggata' is usually rendered one-pointedness.



this is a great point, and i would like to add to it that it is helpful to start out with a naturally peaceful or blissful object to begin with. for many, that is the breath (some aspect of it); for others, often specific physical sensations (such as the ones of relaxing, or the gentle ebb and flow/resistance with gravity, or the bubbly feeling of blood rushing through the blood vessels); for still others, a good starting object can be the ringing tones in the ears. it helps to play around and just see what's uncovered.

tarin

Tarin: Hmm, so I got the Pali word backwards, go figure??? What was I thinking of..???

Today for example, sitting was... nothing.... then a ringing in the ears, then audible head rushes (piti), OH YES! remember the breath, experiencing the breath, some sukkha, not a lot though, Then more head rushes and body rushes resulting a pronounced breaking down into vibrations, the lots of sukka and Piiti together - Almost getting one-pointedness - but not quite. Doing better vipassana, checking out all Four Bases or Frames of Reference now, now just the breath alone, but all the other stuff too and still staying centered and cool with the object. This is okay. Second short session interesting, sexual fantasies, physical pain, more ethereal than first session, less focussed. My drive to renew these experiences is somewhat diminished since I had my "Hour of Clarity" and know there is no self. It is more like the practice is doing me rather than the other way around, and that is okay. But still that is what these jhanas are there for, so you can experience them, right? It is like giving a dog a biscuit treat for doing well maybe
p e a c e
h a n s e n

So the text is entirely wrong - too - will have to work on that

I think vicara is usually considered to refer to effortful sustained attention on the object -- you're locked into it and not wandering around like with vitakka, but it isn't happening automatically. But when you're fixed on the object and you don't need any effort to stay there at all, that's considered one-pointedness. Not that your description of one-pointedness being the perfection of sustained attention on the object isn't equally valid or helpful for the meditator! But they usually say that vitakka and vicara disappear for the second jhana and all jhanas above it, which could be confusing if you consider vicara to be the focus itself, rather than the effort that is required to sustain the focus.

Thanks Adam: I was hoping to get some input - the individual jhana factors are easier to get to than jhanas 1-4, etc., hence a bridge between beginners mind and more advanced stuff, and a way for those starting out to get this stuff to have bit of a map and scaffolding to see where they are at and how the mountain is structured. Relating the factors to the specific jhana states is an equally fine way of looking at the factors, which I hadn't though of. I have a deep love for first principles that I can't quite explain, and I appreciate your commentary
peace
hansen

Adam: I revised the original text using the edit feature available in the software of this site. I this a better version, as the first was full of errors.
t h a n k s
p e a c e
h a n s e n