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188 Harmless Souls 6.2 Sāmāyika
Before we deal with tapas and dhyāna directly, however, it is worth considering some of the associations which cluster around the word sama / sama, 'equanimity', and its synonyms in Jaina doctrine. This will provide some indication of how Kundakunda has arrived at his conception of ideal conduct as primarily an attitude of mind rather than specific, physical conduct.10
Throughout Jaina literature there occurs the term sāmāyika, often translated as 'attaining equanimity'.11 It is, however, possible to trace a substantial shift in emphasis and meaning between the sāmāyika of the early canon and sāmāyika as it appears in later works (in, for example, Kundakunda's Niyamasāra). An outline of this change will help us to a better understanding of the range and type of mental conduct that Kundakunda recommends in the Pravacanasāra.
P.S. Jaini writes that sāmāyika is 'first used in canonical texts with reference to a restraint (samyama) undertaken by Mahāvīra when he renounced the world'. This involved 'nothing less than the lifetime abandonment of all evil acts'. 12 This usage is evident in the following passage from the Āyāramga Sutta:
After the Venerable Ascetic Mahāvīra had plucked out his hair in five handfuls ..., he paid obeisance to all liberated spirits, and vowing to do no sinful act, he adopted the holy conduct. 13
10 See Pravac. 1:7, above. 11 See, for instance, JPP (glossary) p. 350. 12 JPP p. 221.
13 tao nam samane bhagavam Mahāvīre ... pamcamutthiyam loyam karettā siddhāņam ņamokkāram karei, karettā savvam me akaranijjam pāvakammam ti katļu sāmāyiam carittam paờivajjai. Quoted in JPP p. 17, fn. 40 - II.15.23 in Jacobi's trans.; cf. Utt. 28.32. Jacobi's trans., 1884, p. 199 is the one used here.
Jacobi's translation of sāmāyiam / sāmāyikam in this passage as holy' is criticised by Jaini as ignoring the technical meaning of
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