Jain Journal 1982 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 19

JAIN JOURNAL
You could not compare it to anything here. The terms I'm using to describe it are so far from the thing, but it's the best I can do... Because this is a place where the place is knowledge ... knowledge and information are readily available—all knowledge ... You absorb knowledge ... You all of a sudden know the answers ... It's like you focus mentally on one place in that school and--zoom--knowledge flows by you from that place, automatically. It's just like you'd had about a dozen speed reading courses.
And I know verbatim what this man is talking about, but, you see, I'm just putting the same consciousness into my own words, which are different...
I go on seeking knowledge ; “Seek and ye shall find”. You can get the knowledge for yourself. But I pray for wisdom, wisdom more than all ...
A middle-aged lady described it in this way :
There was a moment in this thing well, there isn't any way to describe it but it was like I knew all things ... For a moment, there, it was like communication wasn't necessary. I thought whatever I wanted to know could be known. 13
These statements by the subject sound like an experiential account of what may have been philosophically described in the following manner:
The jiva's relation to matter explains also the somewhat peculiar Jaina view of knowledge. Knowledge is not something that characterizes the jiva. It constitutes its very essence. The jiva can therefore know unaided everything directly and exactly as it is ; only there should be no impediment in its way. External conditions, such as the organ of sight and the presence of light, are useful only indirectly and jñāna results automatically when the obstacles are removed through their aid. That the knowledge which a jiva actually has is fragmentary is due to the obscuration caused by karma which interferes with its power of perception. As some schools assume a principle of avidyā to explain empirical thought, the Jains invoke the help of karma to do so. This empirical thought is sometimes differentiated from the jiva,
13 Ibid , pp. 13-14.