Study of Tattvarthasutra with Bhasya

SR No.: 001578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 196
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Tattvartha Sutra, Philosophy, Tattvartha Sutra, & Tattvarth
File Size: 13 MB

Page 103

Sec. 3. SOME PROBLEMS IN THE T. S.
discriminate the Jaipa concept of dhyāna from that maintained by the other systems, and in so doing he introduced these new featutes into the Jaina system. A treatment on dhyāna made in the T.S. immediately attracted his successors, who made further efforts to develop what was worked out by Umāsvāti to the effect that Jaina yoga came to be established as an independent branch by the end of the medieval period. In view of this, his treatment of dhyana requires a critical examination, which is going to be attempted in the following.
The Jaina canon classifies dhyāna into four types, i. e., årta, raudra, dharma and sikla, which are each subdivided into four kinds. The first two types are exclu fed from the consideration of dhyāna in the non-Jaina systems, and the
last two subdivisions of sukla dhyāna i. e., sūkşmakriya and samucchinnakriya, which aim at the total karmic destruction by way of yoga-nirodha are peculiar to the Jainas alone, that do not again fall in the category of dhyảna in the normal usage of its term. Samucchinnakriyā is the state of dhyāna revealed in the immediate sequel of sūksmakriyā, therefore it is called dhyāna in the nominal sense alone, which does not involve in essence any effort for its performance. The content of Jaina dhyāna is thus very peculiar by itself jumbling together the non-dhyāna elements in its ordinary sense of term. The first two subdivisions of sukla dhyāna, 1. e., pfthaktva vitarka and ekatva vitarka, correspond to the beginning stages of samprajñāta samadhi in the Yoga system and to the rudimentary stages of the first dhyāna of 'the Buddhists. This indicates that the Jainas did not attach that much importance to the practice of dhyāna in the Agamic period in comparsion with the non-Jainas who developed the elaborate methods of meditation scheme.
It is not impossible to trace how these contents stated above came to be established under the category of dhyāna in the capon. The Sūtrakrta I. II. 26-28 read, 'te ya biyodagam ceva tam-uddissā ya jam kadam bhoccā jhānam jhiyāyamti akheyannasamāhiyā) jahā dhamka ya kamkā ya kulala maggukā sihil macchesanan ihiyāyamti jhāṇam te kaluşādhamam!! evem tu samaņā ege micch additthi anāriyāl visaesanam jhiyāyamti kamkā va kalusāhamā.' The mental activity of a sinful kind is here already expressed by the term dhyāna, which denetes nothing more than a manoyoga in the later term. This soon prepared the rise of raudra and ārta classes in the Sūtrakrta II.2.9, 'ahāvare atthame kiriya-tthāne ajjhatıha-vattie tti āhijjail se jahā-nāmae kei purise natthi nam kei kim-ci visamvādei sayam-eva hiñe dine dutthe dummane ohaya-maņa-samkappe cinta-soga-sagara-sampavitthe karayala-palhattha-muhe atta-jjhānovagae bhūmigaya-ditthie jhiyai...' In the course of time, these two dhyānas came to be considered in relation to avratas, and meotal activity brooding over the objects of parigraha and abrahma came to be called ärta dhyāna, and that over the objects of the first four avratas came to be called raudra dhyāna as their subdivisions evince. :: Sušukla-śukla dhyāna practised by Mahāvīra is described in the Sūtrakrta I. 6. 16-17 in connection with the total destruction of karmas, 'anuttaran dhammam-uiraitta
90