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Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth - II
From a pilgrimage guide to Mount Kailash translation Following a summary of the history of Hindu activity around Mt. Kailash, the author, a Buddhist, writes a chapter on the Jain tradition in the area: As a supplement, if one wishes to know rough sketch of the Jain tradition, it is as follows: They are said to have a theoretical system that is a subdivision of the four eternalist schools of non-Buddhists in ancient India. This tradition was named Cherbu (gcer bu, “Naked Ones") who became known by that name because [its practitioners] abided in asceticism, staying naked, not wearing any clothes on their bodies. However, their other appellations were Thai ba'i gos can ("Clothed in Dust") and Phyogs kyi gos can ("Clothed in the Directions"). These days in India, they are called Jains. They lay tremendous emphasis on actions and their consequences. The householders of this tradition do not even eat meat, which goes without saying for the renunciants. Those in the early tradition remained exclusively naked [page 1], but later on, there were two traditions, one of which exclusively wore white garments. Other than the mere difference of wearing or not wearing clothing, there was not much theoretical difference between these two groups. As these people hold that the entire world is the product of previous actions, they are similar, in part, to Buddhists. This system came about before the Bhagawan Buddha had come to the world. Among the twenty-four teachers of the Jains, the name of the first one is called Khyu mChog (Gopati). The last of them is called 'Phel ba or Mahavir.' Mahavir was a contemporary of our own teacher. Those two even had some mutual connections. At that time in India there were many dissimilar theoretical systems, but if one were to summarize them, they would be subsumed under two main groups: those Vedic Hindus who maintained traditions of harmful sacrifice, and the Buddhists and Jains who maintained traditions of celibacy on a path of non-violence and peace. That tradition appears to be harmonious with Buddhism, and there are many practitioners of it these days in India. They adopt both asceticism and vows. They argue that asceticism exhausts previous karma, and that one attains liberation after cutting off later karma by means of vows. Among the twenty-four Jain teachers, the first one, Khyu-mchog, or Ru-shob-Na-tha, engaged in arduous asceticism at Mt. Kailash, thereby gradually exhausting his past karma. By taking on vows that maintained the discipline of the ten kinds of virtue and by renouncing harm to even the tiniest creatures, he cut off future karma. It is said that he gained liberation near at the cliffs known as the Buddha's throne (sangs rgyas bzhugs khri) near the upper slopes of a monastery about two miles from the face of Mt. Kailash. That rocky mountain is also referred to in the Indian language as Asakrapadha. “Asakrapa" refers to the presence of eight tiers of rock terraces at that mountain, and "padha” means “place," or "level." He (khyu-mchog) is thus also referred to as the Protector Who Reached the Eight Levels. His older son, Bharat, in the early part of his life, governing a city and establishing his hegemony, became a wheel-turning monarch. As his fame pervaded the ten directions, his kingdom also took on the name Bharat. In the latter part of his life it is said that, along with his younger brother Bahubali and nineteen relatives, he took monastic ordination and, together with many spiritual companions, travelled to Mt. Kailash to remain dedicated to asceticism and vows. Translation from a pilgrimage guide to Mt. Kailash
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