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Hermann Kuhn
SUTRA 6
YANGUR TENTA: I & . Pramananayair adhigamah (6) We obtain insight into 19 reality either - by total perception (pramana), where we comprehend the totality of the appearance of the elements (i.e. their forms, qualities and features) as they manifest at a particular time, or - through partial sights, where we perceive manifestations of the elements from a limited perspective (naya). (6)
In the Western hemisphere of the world we generally have the idea that knowledge is something separate from us, something that needs to be laboriously discovered by either experience, research, reflection or ingenious intuition.
In stark contrast to this the Jains regard knowledge as a fundamental and inseparable feature of individual consciousness. According to their understanding we always carry the totality of all knowledge within us, and it is only our limited capacity to perceive this that prevents us from becoming fully conscious of it.
Since in the West we adhere strongly to the familiar concept of external (separate) knowledge, and since we almost never come across alternative models, the thought that we carry all possible knowledge always within us, might appear utterly absurd. Yet the pride the West takes in the data accumulated during the last three centuries, overlooks en
19 and knowledge of
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