How Jains Know What They Know A Lay Jain Curriculum

Author(s): John E Cort
Publisher: Z_Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_1_002105.pdf and Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_2

Page 10

408
John E. Cort
Jambu-jyoti
the individual to seek liberation. This vision is further explained by reading the texts that explain Jain theories of ontology, the Jivavicāra, Dandaka, Tattvārthasūtra, and the Karmagranthas. These last two also provide one with an analysis of the causes and mechanisms of karmic bondage, in other words, the Jain explanation for the imperfect and unsatisfactory human condition. Finally, the other texts in this curriculum provide one with a practical way to respond to this growing understanding of human bondage and suffering. The Panca Pratikramana Sūtras explain the avasyakas, those rituals encumbent upon mendicants as daily practice to advance along the path to liberation. The Tribhāsyas also explain the daily practice, as oriented in three directions : devotion to the Jinas as the exemplars of the possibility of perfecting and liberating the soul, devotion to the gurus as those who are travelling the path of liberation, and the various forms of asceticism that coupled with devotion make up the Jain path. The Navasmarana hymns are not explanatory texts, but rather ritual actualizations of the powers inherent in the Jain path, the performance of which both advance one along the path and provide the mundane protection needed to sustain the Jain community.
This curriculum is specifically a Svetảmbara Mūrtipūjak one. A similar curriculum for a Digambara, Sthānakavāsī, or Svetāmbara Terāpanthi layperson would consist of different texts. The topics covered in such a curriculum would be broadly the same, although there would some difference in both specific doctrines and practices and in the overall tenor of the curriculum. This curriculum is in some ways even more specifically Tapā Gaccha, and so a curriculum for a layperson in the Kharatara, Añcala, Tristuti, Pārśvacandra, or other gacchas would also include some different texts. This very specificity indicates that the careful study of the intellectual history of Jainisin needs to pay attention to issues of sectarian affiliation. The portrayal of Jainism as a single set of teachings that is the same regardless of time, place, or sect results in the portrayal of a reified entity that exists more in the scholar's study than it ever has on the ground in India.
I noted at the outset of this essay that this curriculum provided at Folkert by Muni Jambūvijayji has a distinctively mendicant cast to it. While many of these are texts that most Mūrtipūjaka mendicants study, it is only the most committed layperson who would have much familiarity with any