ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 04

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 283

Knowledge is of one type only. However, for the sake of explaining and its systematic investigation ranging from the most imperfect knowledge of one sensed j va to the perfect knowledge of five sensed omniscient, right knowledge or samyak-jn na had been classified as of five types of knowledge in the canonical literature:
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Mati or mind based or sensory perception: includes sense perception, memory (sm ti). recognition (sañjn ), hypothetical reasoning (cint), and inference (anum na).
ruta or verbal testimony: knowledge generated by words Avadhi or clairvoyance or knowledge with limits: avadhi cognizes distant (temporally and spatially) physical objects Manah paryaya or telepathy or knowledge of mental modes i.e. which perceives directly the modes of other person's mind and hence the thoughts and their objects Kevala or omniscience
The last three are supra empirical and are generated by special type of meditation and spiritual purification while the first two are empirical knowledge only and acquired through sense organs and mind. Further they maintained that the first three in nas may be true (samyak) or wrong (mithy ) depending on the state of knower as having samyak dar ana or not. Samyak dar ana was defined as the tendency or attitude that was conducive to spiritual progress. Thus knowledge being valid or not was dependent on spiritual progress and not on logic. This is the first phase of knowledge development in Jain canonical literature.
Matijn na - Sensuous Perception or Mind Based Knowledge (7) Sensuous perception is defined as the knowledge acquired through the aid of the five senses and mind. This originates with intuition followed by the four steps namely:
Out linear-grasp: avagraha or awareness of some existence Discrimination; h, a desire to know whether it is THIS or THAT Perceptual judgment; av ya is ascertainment of the right and exclusion of the wrong Retention of judgment; dh ra
There is a rule concerning complete cycle of the four steps indicated. Sometimes 1, 2 or even first three steps can occur and then forgotten. These four steps result with the aid of the sense organs. After retention of judgment; memory, comparison, logic or inference can occur serially and are the functions of mind. All these four steps after retention of judgment are also included in matijn na.
Jain thinkers have defined touch or skin (spar ana), taste (rasn ), smell (ghra), form / colour or eye (cak u) and hearing (rava a) as the five types of sense organs. Further they also consider mana / manas (mind) as no-indri (quasi sense) and the integrator of all the remaining five senses. Of these six senses, eyes and mind are not competent for contact-awareness while the remaining four senses perceive the objects only on contact with them. Therefore contact awareness is possible through later four senses only while the object-awareness is possible through all the six senses. Matijn na is preceded by visual intuition /cak u and / or non-visual intuition / acak u dar ana.
Since all the senses and body are indicated as consisting of matter, matijn na is limited to knowing concrete objects only, i.e. objects which can be cognized by the senses as they have attributes which are the subjects of the five senses. Non-concrete objects, like soul/self, k a, dharma, adharma and k la are not the subjects of matijn na. Hence we see that the sphere of its cognition even though is very limited, yet it is of prime importance as it is the knowledge, which affects our daily life.
Stages of sensual perception discussed Let us take each stage of development of sensual perception at a time for brief discussion.
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STUDY NOTES version 4.0