The investigational is intended to find out
the subtle characters or abstract natures of such things, that is, the
characteristics and qualities of them which are not visible to the senses. This
requires much thought about categories or classes of the objects, and their
constants behind time and space. Let us take as our example the notion of a
cow. In the vitarka stage we shall observe what it is, what it has, and what it
does in fact. These are being, doing, and having at the concrete level. In the
vichara stage we shall be concerned with the cow as cow and as such something
beyond time and space, which is the same in all circumstances and at all times,
and is always in the same manner causative in its relation to other beings and
objects. The particular object live cow can be regarded as expressive of a
subtle reality which it embodies. The subtle is thus something of the nature of
mind. Thinking is required to get at these abstracts and to see that they are
realities and are the powers in the world, or the axes of all growth.
Instead of an object, like the cow, one may
consider the senses of hearing, feeling or touching, seeing, tasting, and
smelling. These are not considered to be derived from objects (as though salt
had a certain taste and sugar a certain taste; which they have not, for sugar
is not sweet to itself) but are deep-seated axes of the growth of forms and are
responsible for the relations of selves to things, including their bodies and
minds. As such they are realities to be known by much thinking (vichara). Only
their effects at the gross (sthula) level are matters for inspection by the
senses These subtle objects of enquiry go on from depth to depth, even as far
as the indefinable reality which we call the undifferentiated manifest reality (prakriti). The aphorism states this in the following
terms: 'The domain of the subtle ends only at the indefinable.
This can be understood by remembering that
the ultimate class or ultimate substance in this case cannot be known in terms
of its presentations, which limit it by particularity, and so do not represent
it.
In this philosophy - or science - both
things and mind are material (prakriti), though the first are gross and the
latter subtle, though the first have form and the latter is formless, though
the first are of space (have spatial dimensions or extensity, or exist as
space-process), and the latter is not of space (has no extensity) but exists as
a time-process. Therefore meditations can go to the indefinable summum genus,
or ultimate class, and there they must stop, because there is nothing thinkable
about, as there are no characteristics.
We have now to understand that both the
inspectional and investigational kinds of meditation and contemplation are dealing
with something of the world (of the object-side or of the mind-side of it), and
they are therefore operating within the field of matter (prakriti). As such
their results are also within that field. On this account they are described as
'with seed (sabija). If the meditation and contemplation are on a cow the
resulting intuition will be something about a cow.
Another point to be noted is that each of the two forms of
materially-conscious (samprajnata) meditation and contemplation has two stages.
Thus there are:
(a) The inspectional (savitarka) and the
(b) Non-inspectional (nirvitarka).
Similarly, there are:
(a) The Investigational (savichara) and the
(b) Non-investigational (nirvichara)
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