Concept of Pancasila in Indian Thaought

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi

Page 46

Sila and its Allied Problems
discussed under the fourth noble truth of Buddha that there is a path leading to the cessation of suffering (DukkhaNirudha).
Śila in general, as has been already seen, meansvirtue, good conduct, morality or physical discipline, which mainly refers to the five precepts of pänätipāta-veramaṇi, adinnādāna-veramaņi, kāmamicchācāra-veramaņi, musāvada-veramaņi, and surämereyamajja-pamādatthāna-veramani which are also discussed in Jaina system and Pātañjala Yogasūtras and yamas respectively. Thus, discipline or morality forms the first part of Buddha's doctrine.
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By samadhi is meant the mental discipline or purification of citta (mind) througn concentration or meditational practices. These meditational practices form the core of Buddhism. According to Buddhists, purity is more mental than physical, and in Buddhist ethics emphasis has been laid more on mental than on physical discipline, even though physical discipline or silas cannot be purely physical without being mental. Lastly, prajñā, the final stage, is attained as the end of all sila and samadhi, the ultimate knowledge of truth. It is in the third constituent of 'prajña' that Buddhism offered its own solution to the riddle of the universe. These are the threefold teachings of Buddha as a path to liberation, the glory of which has been sung in verse after verse and in passage after passage in Nikayas and Dhammapada.
The Jaina doctrine of the path to liberation or Mokṣa called 'triratna' (or the three jewels for liberation) has already been discussed. The first constituent of the Buddhist doctrine, i. e. sila', can well be assimilated to the last constituent of Jaina doctrine, i. e. căritra. This in fact is the closest
1. It is stated in Majjhima
(Part I, p. 292) that ascetic practices do not even lead to kāyabhāvanā (physical discipline) not to speak of cittabhāvanā
(mental
discipline).