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YOGA AND MEDITATION
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brow, the navel, the head, the heart or the palate. The next thing is to prepare for meditation.
People who live in the world - laymen and -womentake shelter in religion and focus their mind, reflecting on the following: the first type of is agnya vichāya, in which one meditates deeply on the seven tattvas or elementary facts (life and non-life, the inflow, bondage, stoppage and removal of karmas, and the final accomplishment of liberation). The second is apaya vichāya, in which incorrect insights and behavior in which “sleeping souls” indulge, are reflected upon. The third is vipaka vichāya dharma dhyāna, in which one reflects on the eight causes or basic types of karma (see chapter 4), The fourth is sansathan vichāya dharma dhyāna, when one thinks about the vastness of the universe and the loneliness of the soul, which has had to face the results of its own causes all alone since it first began to suffer as a result of ignorance and constant reembodiments in the 8,400,000 body forms or species which exist. The omniscience of the arhats has over and over again unveiled the universal knowledge about the universe to humankind. Mahāvīra, the last Tīrthamkara, did just that. That knowledge was written down in the form of stories. All these stories are meant to open the eyes of mundane souls and inspire them to destroy the poisons known as passion, anger, arrogance, meanness and obstinacy, and to be a normal being.
Those who have advanced a little further on the path of meditation (dhyāna) apply a number of techniques known as pindāstha-dhyāna, padāstha-dhyāna, rūpāstha-dhyāna, rūpātita-dhyāna, savīrya-dhyāna, etc. In the case of pindāstha-dhyāna one imagines oneself sitting all alone in the middle of a vast ocean of milk on a lotus flower, meditating on the soul. See figure 6 at the beginning of this chapter. There are no living beings around whatsoever. The lotus is identical to Jambūdvīpa, with Mount Meru as its stalk. Next the meditator imagines a 16-petalled lotus at the level of his navel, and on each petal are printed the (Sanskrit) letters "arham“ and also an inverted lotus of 8 petals at the location
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