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Kundakunda: The Pravacanasāra 181 together', 126 for true wisdom is endowed with thoughts of selfless detachment, love and non-violence'. 127
The Jains, by way of contrast, aim for a state in which the affective can be discarded altogether; for ultimately liberation is only to be attained from a condition founded in indifference to everything not self. This is made explicit at Pravacanasāra 2:67, which reads:
Free from inauspicious manifestation of consciousness, not joined to auspicious (manifestation of consciousness) towards other substance, let me be indifferent; I meditate on the self whose essence ('self) is knowledge.
Since, as we have already noted at 2:65 (above), compassion (aņukampā) directed towards other beings is a manifestation of śubhopayoga, then it is clear that compassion can have no part in this meditation practice, the aim of which is to destroy all connection with paradravya, a connection which in itself constitutes bondage. 128
In other words, as one approaches the top of the ladder to salvation, one develops, on the one hand, an attitude of indifference, a kind of psychological stasis with regard to everything not self, and on the other, an intense concentration on, or realisation of, the inner 'knowledge' which constitutes the ātman alone. This isolation of the self from other selves, and from the world in general, mirrors, and eventually becomes, the isolation of the jiva that has attained kevala-jñāna at the apex of the universe.
Before leaving the subject of compassion, we should note that Kundakunda's categorisation of it as falling under
126 Ibid.
127 Ibid. p. 49. Rahula is, perhaps, sandpapering the joints here: such pairings are not unproblematical even for the Buddhists. For the tension between 'love' and 'self-restraint', see Gombrich 1971, pp. 320
128 esa me paradravyasamyogakāraṇavināśābhyāsah, 'This is my practice of the destruction of the causes of conjunction with other substance.' - TD on Prāvac. 2:67.
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| SR No. | 001196 |
| Book Title | Harmless Soul |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav |
| Publisher | Motilal Banarasidas |
| Publication Year | 1995 |
| Total Pages | 372 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle |
| File Size | 20 MB |