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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
truth to assist non-omniscient beings such as ourselves. The criteria themselves derive from what is taught to humankind by the omniscients. As given by Helmuth von Glasenapp:31
Truth:
emanated from the omniscient masters, was never refuted in disputations, because it is irrefutable, cannot be changed or attained by any type of knowledge, be it indirect or direct, by any sort of perception, influence or tradition, explains all things sufficiently according to their true nature, promotes beings of all types, from gods down to plants and elementary beings morally and does good to them, is so powerful that it is able to destroy everything that is false.
Each of these criteria can be criticized: How do we know whether a teacher is omniscient? What should we do if supposedly omniscient teachers of various traditions (outside the field of Jainism) seem to contradict each other? Because, as limited beings, we can not ourselves judge the genuineness of a teacher (e.g. whether Mahāvīra is right, or Gautama Buddha, or both or neither of them). If we opt for our own beloved tradition, the choice is emotional rather than cognitive – which has, at least from a western point of view, no epistemological value.
Scriptural truth comes from outside ourselves and is only a reflection of Truth by means of words which already have an established meaning in the (naturally limited) mind of the reader, and thus scriptures have no more authority than what the reader is able to understand of their meaning. Words are isolated definitions of isolated perceptions and thoughts, which thus philosophically do not harmonize with Oneness and non-separateness - concepts which form the core of many
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