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302
Tattvarthasutra
There is also meditation. Still, one question remains regarding meditation: in the state from the beginning of the fourteen stages of spiritual development up to the point of the cessation of activity, is there any meditation done while living in that state? And if so, what is it? The answer comes in two ways: 1. The perception of the omniscient being (sarvajñ) at that stage is called 'meditative absorption,' and it is acknowledged that there is no meditation accepted there. 2. In that state, the strong efforts related to the mind, speech, and body’s actions are accepted as meditation.
Commentary: The aforementioned meditation can last only up to the ultimate limit; hence, beyond that, sustaining it is tough, leading to its time parameter being considered as internal.
Some consider breath retention as meditation, while others regard counting time with a unit as meditation, but the Jain tradition does not accept this. The reason for this is that if breathing is completely halted, eventually the body will not endure; thus, even the slightest breathing activity occurs in a meditative state. Similarly, when someone measures time with a unit:
1. The time taken to play a single vowel like 'Om' is considered as one unit. When a consonant becomes devoid of sound, it takes as much time as an 'adh' unit. Through the practice of understanding time marked by units or non-units, it is said that when certain actions take this much time, that time can be calculated in terms of units.