develop and pursue (bhavita, bahuli-kata) , that pair of words gets used together for all the major meditation practices. 4ip (iddhi pada), 16APS, mindfulness of death, probably every meditation you can think of there are many suttas that uses that expression to say, “do that, develop that pursue that”.
manasi (mental/mind) karoti (doing), usually translated as paying attention, is probably one of the most common phrases in the EBT. It’s used probably most frequently in the context of the Buddha starting off a talk and telling teh monks to pay attention.
In the vinaya definition commentary for ekagga citta, manasi karoti is closely associated with “paying attention”. As well as samadhi. This is why V&V (vitakka & vicara) is thinking and evaluation, and why V&V in first jhana has a really important role. It’s an oral tradition, so it requires “much developed, much pursued paying attention” to a particular dhamma teaching to hear (you can hear and listen to a dhamma talk in first jhana), memorize (an important part of samma sati people don’t usually think about), and then frequently recall important teachings to mind, paying attention and reflecting on that teaching (V&V and pari-vitakka).
In other words manasi karoti is a code phrase for the samadhi and unification of mind of listening, paying attention like it’s really important.
Here’s a prime example of this, the standard formula for perception of light, for knowledge and vision.
AN 5.28:
aloka sanna manasi karoti… luminosity perception (he) pays attention to. The formula does not explicitly use the words samadhi, ekagga, but this practice is always used in the context of a high 4th jhana quality of mind being used to attain 6 abhinna, so by the JST (jhana sandwich theorem we know 4th jhana is involved).
manasi karoti is a stealthy code phrase for samadhi and ekagga.
