Jain Center Los Angeles CA 1988 07 Jain Bhavan Inauguration

Author(s): Jain Center So CA Los Angeles
Publisher: USA Jain Center Southern California

Page 22

CONCEPTIONS AND PERCEPTION
Pujya Shree Chitrabhanuji
The Enemy Inside
Form and formless can be viewed as the world of conception and the world of perception. CONCEPTION is an outer world while PERCEPTION is an inner one and REALITY is found between these two.
If we don't have inner perception, we create divisions which separate us and cause unhappiness. In reality there is no unhappiness. The mental agony people suffer is from the fire of jealousy, of ego, of anger. It burns them inside; it is their colored thoughts!
When we live in the world of concepts, we deal only with outside forms. But when we have inner percep- tion -- when we throw the inner light on all the forms the forms become meaningful. Without this light of perception the same forms become obstacles to our journey.
In reality, the enemy is inside! In the mantra NAMO ARI HANTANUM, ARI is the enemy hidden inside, the one we so often don't see. Meanwhile, we project this inner enemy in other people, causing
The main thing to learn from a teacher, a religion or from meditation is to answer this question: "Am I throwing inner light on all the forms or am I being governed by them?" If you are only governed by them, life will hold nothing but pain and suffering. torture and conflict. The forms will appear to be in chaos and confusion, but we can see harmony in the forms only when we use our inner uniting force, the sense of perception.
Whenever you are angry, jealous, egotistical or depressed, don't run away from it. Stay with it. There is no need to take any temporary means, such as pills, drugs, cigarettes or alcohol, to calm down or to run from it. Stay and watch. Ask, “Why am I jealous? Who is making me jealous?” Nobody can compel you to be jealous. You are your own enemy. No outside enemy can punish you as severely as you do to yourself. Think of the damage you do to your brain, to your thinking, to your body, to your peace when you are in anger. If anyone else ever did such damage to you, you could sue them. But when you damage yourself, whom do you sue?
This body is a form, a container. But we don't see that which is contained. What is that? We know that our hand is here and we want to lift it to there. Who gives the order to move this hand? It is the life force, the energy which gives animation to the hand. That is unseen. We have forgotten the REALTY WHICH IS FORMLESS because, in our ignorance, we have attributed REALITY to the symbols.
What is symbol? This body is a symbol. What is reality? The soul is a reality. Because we have not seen the soul, most people believe that the body is reality and the soul is fable. But when we go deep, we realize it is this body which is the fable. it is here today, and gone tomorrow. But the soul continues. It only changes forms.
In the same way, don't be angry with another person because he doesn't know himself. Why should we be angry with a person who is slumbering? That person deserves our compassion. When we have inner perception, we see that this ego, the small ego of body or name which is made of mental air, is our barrier. It comes between us. What have we to prove and to whom? Why give in to the ego? Perception opens the door to a new awareness.
20 For Private & Personal Use Only
Jain Education Intemational