Jain Journal 2001 07

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

Page 19

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXVI, No. 1 July 2001
destruction,37 because he whose wickedness is very great brings himself down to that state where his enemy wishes him to be, as a creeper does with a tree which it surrounds.38 In Buddhism a man who is devoted to religious practice is extolled as living his lise void of cravings, perfected, cool, in blissful enjoyment, his whole self ennobled.39
While deliberating on the nature of nirvāna, we must not ignore the fact that in early Buddhism two kinds of self were admitted. The one is the self of ordinary daily life; a practical distinction man is led to make by the inherited concepts of language. This ordinary self has to be subdued, for man has a tendency to attach linguistic entities to feelings, which can result in such feelings, now having been given a name, being thought to be a self; and this may well be ignorance which must be overcome. The other is a latent self was called "the lord of self."40 This clarifications should make it possible to see through the apparent contradiction in Buddhism brought about by multiple usages of the term 'attā' or sell, and in addition facilitate explanation of Nirvana as "taking refuge to the truth of Self of one's own." Thus, one must understand that the Buddhist concepts of anattā, or nonself, and the attā, or the "true self' are not at odds with each other. On the contrary, the former is one of the Buddha's aids to understanding the latter. Through following the Buddha's path and thoroughly understanding the phenomenal nature of existence and awareness that they are altogether empty of permanent self, one finds that his true self is an expression by the Buddha of his confidence that the unobstructed events have the moral character of universal norms (dharma) and coincide perfectly with man's duty.41
The Buddhist life of the Perfect One is difficult for ordinary people to fathom. The ideal situation is not something concrete, or something sizable. It lies only in proceeding towards the aim of the ideal. Proceed a mile, the ideal lies further on. Go on two miles, it lies further none the less, like a shadow projected on the way forward. The ideal situation always lies in the direction of putting forth effort to the goal, and the goal should be always elevated; since effort towards the goal falls under
37. ibid., 164 : Yo säsanam arahatam ariānam dhammajüvitam/
Parikosati dummedho ditthim nissāya pāpikam/
Phalāni katthakasseva attahaññāya phullati// 38. ibid., 162 : Yassaccantadussilam māluvā sālamivotatam/
Karoti so tathattānam yo'tam icchati diso// 39. Digha-Nikāya, 3, pp. 232-233. 40. Dhammapada, 160. 41. Hajime Nakamura, op.cit., pp. 271-272.
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