Illuminator of Jaina Tenets

SR No.: 006924
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 252
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

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Iluminator of Jaina Tenets
[ Lustre VI
detachment from worldly things. The placidity is attained by the cultivation of the virtues of maitri (friendliness), karunā (compassion), mudita (appreciative joy), and upeksa (indifference to the wicked).
These virtues are called 'appamåna' (Skt. apramāna) in Buddhism because their reference is to infinity (ananta), and not to any particular part. As such, these virtues are in respect of the ananta. The Prakrit word 'anantavattiyānuppehā' may be construed as reflection on the immeasurable virtues like maitri, etc. The remaining three reflections in connection with the pure concentration are for the inculcation of the highest detachment, called para-vairāgya in Patañjali's system, which is immediately followed by kaivalya. The second stage of pure concentration is necessarily followed by the thirteenth gunasthāna exactly as para-vairāgya is followed by kaivalya in the Samkhya-Yoga system.
The Jaina system of concentration has some special features which distinguish it from Patañjala and Buddhist systems. The Jaina path of concentration begins with an analytical view of reality (vicaya), whereas the other two , systems start with the concentration of the mind on a particular object with a view to tranquillize the mind. There is, however, a fundamental difference between the Patañjala and the Buddhist approach. In the latter, the psychical factors of vitarka, vicara, priti and sukha are serially eliminated as the meditator advances towards the goal of samadhi. In the Patañjala system, the meditator along with the elimination of the factors of vitarka, vicära, ananda and asmită gradually, one by ono, establishes his hold upon the gross and subtle evolutes upto the asmitā element. Such hold is absent in the Buddhist conception. Buddhism, however, prescribes another course of concentration which is called vipasyana i.e. analytical introspection of the nature of the mental and physical phenomena (dharma). It is this vipaśyand which leads the meditator to the path of emancipation.
In the Jaina view of concentration, the starting point is not tranquillization of mind. It starts right from the analytic perception called dharma-vicaya. The factors of vitarka and vicăra come at a later stage. Unlike in the Pātañjala and the Buddhist systems, the vicāra, i.e., transition of thought is eliminated in the beginning, followed by the elimination of vitarka which is concerned with the verbal element in the process of concentration. It appears that according to the Jaina system, the concepts are to be eliminated in order to be able to eliminate the verbal content of the concentrative process.
In this connection, the explanation of the connotation of the words vitarka and vicára, which are common to all the above-mentioned three traditions, is felt necessary, Vitarka in the Pātañjala and the Buddhist traditions stands for the gross application of mind and vicāra for the subtle one. There is, however, difference in their meaning. In Buddhism, vitarka and vicāra are purely psychological factors, with practically no reference to the object of concentration. In the Pātañjala system, however, the vitarka has the gross things as its object, while vicära lays hold on the subtle elements. Thus, in the Pātañjala system, the object of concentration changes when the meditator passes on from the vitarkānugata stage to the vicärānugata one. There is no such change in the case of Buddhist meditation, wherein the meditator eliminates vitarka in order to be firmly established in vicāra.
ļo Jainism, the terms vitarka and vicāra hạve slightly different connotations.