Faith Knowledge and Conduct

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Champat Rai Jain

Page 92

THE TRUTH
83
plete) knowledge. The four stages' referred to are : (1) pure sensing, (2) the attitude of enquiry when the mind tests the nature of the external stimulus with the aid of the mental 're-agents,' (3) the ascertained form of the sensation, and (4) the form fixed up in the proper * setting. Each of these stages stands for a separate and distinct kind of knowledge and cannot be confounded with any other. We thus have 6x12 x 4=288 varieties of definite and 48 varieties of indefinite sensations, the total being 336 altogether.
It should be noted that the image present in the mind in connection with the second 'stage' (the attitude of enquiry) is a different kind of thing from the original sensation; it is the latter plus an idea or element that has been contributed by the mind. I hear a voice: this is pure sensing. I then think that it is the voice of a friend, X and proceed to ascertain the fact. This is the stage of the attitude of enquiry. In this I have called up the element of X's voice which now overlies the original sensation so to speak. The third stage' is reached with the ascertainment of the fact that the voice is really X’s. Perception is now definite and clear, and there is the re-enforcement of conjecture by a positive ascertained fact. In the fourth
stage' the idea is inserted in the proper setting, that is to say, it is fitted in its proper place, in the associations relating to X.