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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
worth if they do not at the outset acknowledge its existence. Belief in the soul conceived in this manner is both paramount and axiomatic, irrespective of any sectarian difference. After one accepts the idea of the soul as an eternal entity, experience of what this is might thereafter come in a variety of different forms. Thus, an individual might become awakened to the recognition that his or her real nature is the soul perhaps because of having a sense of being separate from the body. This may emerge, for example, merely by way of contemplation on bodily changes over time. Non-identification with the body, in fact, is commonly reported, such as when one goes through childhood into adulthood and eventually into old age, with increasing realisation of being different from the body. And, yet again, at any stage of life the presence of pain or disease in the body, to use a similar illustration, is equally often testified to bring clarity of awareness that one is an entity entirely separate from the body. The performance of sadhana, of course, especially practices like meditation and fasting, which can promote dissociation from the body, and in very profound ways, are often said to do this too. All these examples are thus useful for understanding what samyak darshan means in terms of belief backed up by experience. But, importantly, it is the experience of what the belief expresses that makes samyak darshan fully meaningful as right or proper perception, experience being necessary if one is to rise above the ground of mere blind faith.
While doctrine about the existence of the soul as an entity that is pure and eternal is undisputed and positively affirmed in Jainism, a belief that is said to be confirmed by the kinds of experience highlighted above, an understanding of samyak darshan can further be aided from a quite different perspective, from the negative standpoint of wrong belief. Wrong belief or ignorance, according to Jain thought, needs to be removed for true or right perception to occur. For instance, if an individual sets out in life with the belief that making a great deal of money or acquiring a large house will make him or her gain happiness, this would be an example of wrong belief. This is because true happiness cannot be achieved by such things, according to Jainism. Thus, when a person who actually succeeds in getting much wealth or a large house begins to sense this (as is commonly experienced when the hoped for result does not meet one's expectation), the very realisation itself dispels fully the myth that happiness is dependent on such material things or can be gained that way. In other words, one becomes conscious through experience that one can be misguided (about the nature of true happiness in this case), and this itself constitutes a new outlook, a right and proper perception. This, then, is another way of understanding what is meant by samayak darshan.
Moreover, with the arising of awareness about wrong belief (like the perception that it is a mistake to assume that making a great deal of money or acquiring a large house is capable of bringing true happiness), the individual who experiences this ipso facto discovers truth.
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