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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
laws without divine intervention; the sacred teachings are absolutely true, the core of all ethics is ahimsā, and the path leads to the ultimate goal of eternal peace and omniscience.
All these observances and reflections are meant to lead to complete renunciation of all forms of egotistic thinking. These are the meditations practiced by the ascetic monks referred to in the previous chapter. A mendicant, while taking vows, first rises to the 7th stage, then regresses to the 6th. The seventh stage8 is when one cultivates the higher meditations. The meditations and awakening of states of higher awareness bring the aspirant ever closer to his goal, but many of the remaining karmas still have to be suppressed and indeed eliminated. The higher meditations and processes are too esoteric to be described in words. It would make little sense it seems, to try to explain subtleties that grosser minds can not possibly grasp.
In the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh stages the so-called conduct-deluding karmas, such as anger, pride, deceit, greed, grief, fear, sexuality and certain others are either suppressed or destroyed, including the most subtle ones. One can imagine that, as one progresses on the path, one has to face every single delusion and weakness to which one has succumbed in past lives, and every single one has to be conquered. It must indeed be a dreadful experience to come face to face with all harm one has ever done to the world through time. And what if, driven by Compassion, we wish to destroy all that causes evil in the world, and thus evoke all this as enemies against us in the form of the most dreadful monstrosities? Everything must be conquered - and we have the power, as long as we do not forget that the ultimate purity, wisdom and force for the good of all beings is innate in the soul. Up to the eleventh stage one climbs one of two "ladders”: the one of suppression or the one of elimination. As long as the karmas are only suppressed the aspirant will reach the eleventh stage, but the passions will resurface and may
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