Some insight into the process and the terms
If an disturbing object enters the domain of the 5 senses…the meditator might have to advert his mind towards it…investigating it, he might find a suitable name for it (determining/classifying it)…having found a suitable name, he will have the possibility of thinking rightly (or wrongly) about it…the conclusion thereof will be registered in his mind stream…
As an example, ….if a certain tension arises in the body of the meditator,…he might advert his mind towards it,…investigating it, he decides, that this tension is only due to temporal external causes,…and thus not worth his attention (this being determination)…in such case the process might stop right there,….but if he finds,..that this tension has arisen due to some other cause, his mind might have to start thinking about the phenomenon for a longer period of time…which might continue even beyond the sitting session…
In a similar manner with the mind,…some worry arises,…the meditator adverts his mind towards it…thinking over it he finds, it arises due to some bad action he has done in the past…understanding thus he might make a decision to make amends for it or to do some kind of purifying action at a suitable time…only for a person who has such attitude, might arise an understanding of the possibility to purify that action just by means of using his meditation subject …doing thus, if he has a suitable subject of meditation, he might be able to attain Jhāna (samadhi)….
In the beginning stages of meditation (in an ideal progression…which is not necessarily realistic) there will arise many mental processes as the result of the momentum of the impressions of 5 sensory-world …meditating as the the result of disenchantment with the 5 sensory world,..long processes will be registered in accordance with ones understanding of the impermanent, suffering and non-self nature of the 5 sensory world. Then, after some time (ideally) mind-door adverting will automatically start to determine an object related to the 5 sensory-world as suffering,….thus the mental process might end already after mind-door adverting …parallel with this, there will arise mental-processes taking the determined meditation subject as their object…seeing the advantage of contemplating the meditation subject…the mind will take the determined object more often (repetition condition- asevana paccaya) …= vitakka vicara….whereupon joy will arise, happyness will arise and eventually one-pointedness will arise (Jhana-condition). As the jhanic mental factors arise more and more common,..the mind takes them occasionally as objects…realizing their benefits, and later the disadvantages of the coarser ones’.
Going as far as he can…if the mind is of a mystical or metaphysical bend…and if there is certain related kamma, intention will refine the mind up to the formless attainments …if the mind is of another bend,…certain mental-factors arising with wisdom …realizing the potential of the moment, might in accordance with prior kamma be intent on a certain higher knowledge or power …this may include or be a higher understanding of suffering, its cause, cessation of suffering, as well as the path leading to the cessation of suffering (not in an abstract or philosophical sense, but as something personal, relating to ones situation now, but seen from a higher perspective) (also depending on conditions, there might arise only the realization of one or two or three of these truth)
