vicāra
Sustained application
[ vee-CHAA-ra ]
Seeing it in life
Vicāra keeps the mind moving over the object. With vitakka it forms the first two factors of jhāna.
In short
Examining the object continually.
The analysis
Vicāra keeps the mind moving over its object once vitakka has brought it there — sustained examination rather than the initiating movement. As the second jhāna factor it's dropped at the third jhāna, once the mind's stability no longer requires this ongoing engagement to remain settled. The texts compare vitakka to striking a bell and vicāra to its resonance continuing afterward.
Where it sits
Vicāra is the second of the five jhāna factors, present in the first jhāna alongside vitakka and dropped together with it at the second jhāna transition.
Turning a decision over, examining it from a few angles once attention has already landed on it, is vicāra — the sustained phase, distinct from the first moment of noticing the decision needed making.
Commonly mistaken for
Worry or anxious deliberation. Wholesome vicāra is a jhāna factor supporting stability, not the unsettled circling of akusala thought.
A separate act from vitakka. The two work as a closely linked pair — mounting and sustaining — rather than independent operations.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha IX.
Related terms