Vitakka and Vicara

Words and Thoughts

There are two situations which most people will have experienced which will show the nature of escape from Vitakka and Vicara:

There is the one case where at one time back there it seemed as though absolutely everyone was saying bad things about one or about one's possessions, or about one's loved ones, and they were saying these things and others were saying equally disagreeable things in retort, and it seemed like one and all were involved and that it would never end and it was beginning to get to you.

And there is the other case where you have gotten into a bad thought concerning some situation or another and the mentally arguing back and forth accompanied by some imaginary scene that is going on in your mind is reaching frightening heat.

These are the two occupations of the mind of which one is conscious that are below the second burning: word-thought-and-speech and imagining things.

From the second burning...from the point of view of the second burning, these occupations look like pain, hell even.

And one thinks first..."Ah! Here their words can no longer reach me." And then, a little later, one may be conscious that here thoughts can no longer reach one.

What one has done is something that most of us have done before: we stop listening to the words or we stop paying attention to the thoughts. Usually this is not a lasting thing. But in the case of emerging from the First Burning and entering into and abiding in the Second Burning, the details should be noted well and the ones that are producing or establishing or maintaining that not listening and that not paying attention need to be developed.