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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
Truths 1-3 emphasise that we keep on absorbing these karmons through the activity of daily life, and throw some out after their effect has taken place. The fundamental aim in life is of removing this old karmic matter as well as stopping the inflow of the new karmons through Jainness. One of the key negatives responsible for heavy karmic matter (Truth 4A, 4B) is kashaya (destructive emotions) which is composed of Anger, Pride, Deceit and Greed, and the austerities leading to purification (Truth 4C). It may now be seen that ancient Jain wisdom can be readily linked with our lives in the twenty-first century by this introduction of nomenclature and terminology such as Karmons, Jainness, Karmic Fusion, Karmic Bondage etc., to clarify and modernise the well-known Jain terms Anu, Samyaktva, Ashrva, Bandha, etc. respectively (for details see Mardia, 1990). The original terms are now obscure so their meaning is hidden from today's youth, hence the modern scientific synthesis in my writing.
Indeed, according to the Jain science of life, the makeup of every individual can be characterised by the eight key attributes called 'main karmas'. I have demonstrated in my article (Mardia, 2016 "Unified modern treatment of the eight karmic components: Mula-Karmaprakriti". International Conference on Science and Jain Philosophy) that these attributes can be connected with some plausible Quotients and Codes such as IQ, EQ (two well-known quotients) and DNA (a code), so that the Jain science of life is very much relevant to today's context. The analogy of picking fruits from a tree is used to indicate some of these attributes of the Jain science of life. A person with the most karmons (lowest spiritual level) uproots the tree for its fruits, the second cuts the tree from its trunk, the third cuts a branch, the fourth cuts off a bunch, the fifth plucks ripe fruit from the tree and the sixth - the true Jain with lower karmic density - merely picks up ripe fruit. Thus the person with the highest spiritual level has total preservation of the environment in the forefront ... one with JAINNESS! To conclude: Jainism is not an 'ism', Jainism is the science of Jainness!!
OD
