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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
Therefore it is essential to fully understand the ānta doctrine as characterized by the concept of syāt. The word anekānta can be translated as “many aspects.” Truth shows itself to the observer in many aspects. Only the one who has reached complete insight can see the truth as a whole. No one on earth has this power of insight in its fullness, and it may be that two people with the same measure of intelligence and dedication look at the same truth from different angles, so that two opinions appear incompatible. The ethical consequence of the teaching is that one can fundamentally never accuse someone of having the wrong view, while claiming to have the right view oneself. Both views may appear to be correct in the final analysis, though only partly. Two opinions may seem incompatible, but in reality there may only be a paradox: when one has acquired deeper insight one may see that both are legitimate approaches to the same truth, or that both standpoints represent only limited views of the truth.
An example from modern science is that light and other electromagnetic radiation can be regarded as consisting of particles as well as waves: the truth of both views can be proven on the basis of the theoretical behavior which either particles or waves are expected to show according to our experiences on the macrophysical level. Solving such problems may finally lead to a deeper view – and paradoxes on another level. A simple example which one can find with the Jains as well as Buddhists and Sufis is that of the blind men and the elephant. One man touches the trunk, another a tusk, a third an ear, or the elephant's tail, etc. They start to quarrel about what an elephant really is because their views differ completely. Then a sighted passerby says that all of them are right, and that all of them are wrong. In comparison to an omni-clairvoyant and omniscient Jina all of us are blind.
The word syāt means “from one point of view,” Thus anekānta is the doctrine about how truth presents itself to us, and syādvāda (a t becomes d before a v) is the doctrine which teaches that we can approach the truth from different angles. These two doctrines are accompanied by a third, called
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