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208 Harmless Souls
is in itself an opening toward samādhi 'without seed', pure samādhi, for absolute knowledge discovers the state of ontological plenitude in which being and knowing are no longer separated ... Fixed in samādhi, consciousness (citta) can now have direct revelation of the self (puruṣa).82
This is similar enough to Kundakunda's concentration on the pure self as knowledge - without, of course, sharing the same technical context or metaphysics - to alert us to the kind of meditational technique the Digambara writer is recommending. The general method has been discussed above (under 'sāmāyika); as a technique, it might also be compared with the preliminary form of Theravāda Buddhist meditation - samatha or samādhi, the development of onepointedness of mind.83 But such comparisons merely, demonstrate the pan-Indian character of this method; the real interest lies in the way in which Kundakunda applies it and the implications that this has for ascetic practice. And here, the fact that it bears little resemblance to (or at best subsumes) the classical Jaina modes of dhyāna as outlined in the Tattvārtha Sūtra (see above), with their emphasis on the cessation of all activity, is significant. For Kundakunda has developed a path to liberation which, at least in its later stages, is almost totally hermetic or self-referential. The goal is achieved through the individual's inner concentration on his pure self; this brings about knowledge or realisation of that self which, since the pure self has absolutely no connection with other substances (karman, etc.), is synonymous with liberation. The old, semimaterialist model of a soul which is weighted down by material karman shedding that karman through physical austerities and, in its liberation, ascending to the topmost part of the universe, has been (at least temporarily) superseded.
This becomes clear if we consider the ways in which
82 Ibid. 83 See, for instance, Rahula p.68.
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