robertk wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:29 pm
I'll add some psychology perspective here
I think this is similar in semantic to an old debate in the field of cognitive psychology of whether or not there is such a thing as parallel processing.
The science shows that there is indeed a great amount of processing that can occur in the mind without our conscious input.
I believe you can "hear sounds" in the jhanas inasmuch as the brain receives the sensory input signal and processes it accordingly.
"Hearing a sound" can also mean "paying attention to it", "thinking about it" etc. and seems to cover a whole spectrum of sensory processing.
Back to the point about parallel processing, cognitive psych defines two types of processing: conscious, willed, controlled processing and mostly unconscious, automatic processing. The way I see it, controlled processing fits nicely with "vitakka-vicara" and automatic processing fits more with "vipassana". Vitakka-vicara is setting up the conditions for vipassana to occur on a sub-verbal or even sub-conscious level in the higher jhanas.
In this way it is not necessary for one to be aware of processing for it to be taking place, nor is it necessary for one to be unaware of processing for one to be unbothered by it.
Please, let me know if you have critiques or if I can clarify