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7. Naya, Anekānta and Rules of Thinking
It is hardly possible to ignore Samyag Darshan (right vision or proper perspective) when contemplating the doctrine of Jain philosophy, because it is an integral part of Jain philosophy that emanates consciousness. Thought is a dimension of knowledge but Samyag Darshan is a consciousness that removes illusion. Knowledge is acquired from two sources : sensuous consciousness and transcendental consciousness. Thinking is related to sensuous consciousness but in transcendental consciousness there is vision and introspection but no thought According to the Jain doctrine, the knowledge gained from sensuous consciousness is a partial knowledge of a substance, not the entire knowledge of the substance. A person possessing sensory consciousness knows the part of the substance. That partial knowledge becomes the subject of controversy. Five individuals gain knowledge about five different aspects of any one substance and each of them believes their own knowledge to be perfect and true and that of the others to be untrue. In Jain philosophy an effort has been made to change this approach and understand truth through right vision; this is called “Nayavad”.
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