Central Philosophy of Jainism Anekanta Vada

Author(s): Bimal Krishna Matilal, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The Central Philosophy of Jainism
coming. The standpoint of becoming (modification) reveals that everything originates, stays and perishes; the standpoint of being' (“it is”) reveals everything exists eternally without birth or decay.79 And, Siddhasena asserts, there cannot be being without becoming, or becoming without being; therefore, a substance (=reality) is defined as the combination of being with becoming, i.e., origin, decay and stability.80
Siddhasena connects the being' aspect with generalization and the becoming'aspect with particularization. It is pointed out that in our ordinary description of things, we necessarily combine the general with the particular. From the point of view of the highest generalization, a thing is described as “it is" which reveals the permanent being, the substance. But when, in ordinary descriptions, a thing is called a piece of wood, or a chair, or a red chair, we have an intermixture of being and 'becoming' aspects. In so far as the thing is identified as a nonfluctuating substance, it is the being standpoint. And in so far as the attributes of the thing, such as being a piece of wood, being a chair, or redness, are revealed by the description, it is the 'becoming standpoint. Qualities are nothing but modes or states of the substance. In any characterization or description of the thing there is thus an overlap of being and becoming standpoints, until we reach the ultimate particularity, pure becoming', i. e., the point-instants (ksaņas) of the Buddhists. 81