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Kundakunda: The Samayasāra 309 of his own inner nature or self. And it may be that the doctrines expounded by Kundakunda were in part intended as an antidote to excessive 'ritualisation', a reformation through radical internalisation, emphasising that it is not the external form that counts but the internal transformation of consciousness. Such a reading is borne out by the fact that this teaching was aimed specifically at śramaņas, i.e. at those who had to some extent already mastered the external forms.
We can see from the above that, although doctrines such as Kundakunda's undercut external asceticism at a theoretical level to the extent that the rationale for such asceticism becomes slender, there are overriding social reasons which ensure the retention of traditional practice. For it is the practice of ascetics which carries the tradition and which provides the Jainas with their socio-religious identity. With the acknowledged loss of most of their original canon, such ascetic practice is thus a particularly important vehicle for the Digambaras. Consequently, although Kundakunda is acknowledged and revered as being virtually the initiator or compiler of their 'new' scriptural and doctrinal tradition, the implications of his less orthodox teachings are not permitted to destabilise or threaten established ascetic practice; for the tradition that provides the Digambaras with their identity is already in place, embodied in that same ascetic practice, in the behaviour and monastic rules of the śramaņas themselves. So while śuddhopayoga or the pure self may become the inner emblem or ideal of the aspiring ascetic, it does not replace or negate the outer emblem of ascetic practice. The new philosophical and doctrinal reasons for this retention may be weak but the social or communal reasons are stronger.
In addition, it should be remembered that the spiritually advanced laity also undertake numerous ascetic practices, so they too carry the tradition. Thus although internalisation of doctrine gives them a foothold on the soteriological ladder, the actual ascent requires external
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