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Dravyasamgraha
impossible; nor would it explain perceptions if true; for by merely making the perceiving faculty stand in the midst of things we are no nearer the act of perception. Is it not the greatest wonder, then, that the soul can perceive things without moving out of its place and merely through the medium of certain very fine kind of vibrations that reach it through the eye? The fact is that perception only occurs through modification of the perceiving ego, and is nothing but a kind of modification (a state of consciousness) of its being. The external stimulus itself plays but a minor part in the psychological function; it merely evokes characteristic response or resonance in the conscious substance, provided the latter attend to it. For if the perceiving faculty be otherwise engaged the incoming stimulus remains quite unproductive of results. It is thus obvious that perception is an affection of the ego, a feeling evoked or provoked in its being, that is, a state set up in its substance, by interaction between it and the incoming excitation. Now, if the reader will realize that the interaction between the perceiving consciousness and the incoming excitation does not occur all over the surface or substance of being of the ego, but only in an infinitesimally small and microscopical spot (namely, the point where the subtle external vibrations of light, passing along the fine optic nerve and the still finer filaments of nervous matter that connect that nerve with the soul-substance, comes in contact with the soul), he will be able to form some idea of the incalculable infinity of perception that will be realized if the soul-substance become excited all over its being, at one and the same time. This is why Religion describes the emancipated soul as invested with infinite knowledge and infinite perception, among other divine attributes.
Jain, Champat Rai, The Key of Knowledge, p. 95-97.
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