To all interested, especially Bhantes @sujato and @Brahmali
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Dmytro pulled up some excellent passages from Vism. this year, showing that even in Vism. first jhana, vitakka still retains the meaning of verbal, mental recitation. For example, when one mentally recites “earth kasina, earth kasina” as the vitakka, takka & vitakka are “striking” that that quoted thought “earth kasina”, which is a verbal label.
And the commentary explains that’s why first jhana in VRJ (vism. redefine version of jhana) is coarse compared to 2nd VRJ.
VRJ definition and understaning of ‘vicara’ is still corrupted (compared to EBT jhana), but at least ‘vitakka’ in VRJ needs to be translated with something that includes ‘thought’ in there.
edit: addition.
So Bhante Sujato’s translation for vitakka in first jhana as “placing the mind” would not even be the correct translation for Visuddhimagga’s ‘vitakka’ in their first jhana!
Here’s a simile. Let’s say vitakka is a horse-drawn-vehicle. You can not just give me a horse, or a vehicle, and tell me that’s a ‘vitakka’. A horse and carriage in isolation are PART of a horse-drawn-vehicle, but if you try to give just one of them to a customer who paid for the whole package, it won’t work as advertised and they’ll be very angry with you. Similarly, vitakka in first jhana of VRJ (vism.) is not just “striking” or “placing the mind”, it’s the “placing the mind on a THOUGHT”.