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CHAPTER 4
The Buddhist Source of the Eight Drstis in the Yoga-drsti-samuccaya of
Haribhadrasūri
Ν. Μ. ΤΑΝΤΙΑ
In his Yoga-drsti-samuccaya (YDS), Ācārya Haribhadrasūri enumerates eight stages of Yogic development. The most important feature of the spiritual development is the acquisition of Samyag-drsti. The soul undergoes gradual purification and along with the purification its vision (drsti) becomes progressively steady and reaches perfection in the realization of the Truth. This gradual development of the vision has been classified into eight stages, viz., Mitrā, Tārā, Balā, Dīprā, Sthirā, Kāntā, Prabhā and Parā.
Drsti means attitude towards Truth. This attitude, according to Jainism, is wrong and perverse so long as the soul has not cut asunder the knots (granthi-bheda). This perverse attitude is known as Darśana-moha or Mithyātva or Moha. The attitude of the soul, which has not cut the knot, is known as commonplace attitude (ogha-drști). The opposite of this is the attitude of the spiritually advanced soul (yoga-drsti). It is also known as the sad-drsti. The former is responsible for the origination of the mutually conflicting systems of thought.
The above-mentioned eight drstis are the yoga-drstis and ‘not purely the common-place attitudes, although the first four
