Jaina Gazette 1927

Author(s): J L Jaini, Ajitprasad
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office

Page 27

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THE JAINA GAZETTE If we stand in one position for half an hour and after a while do so for a longer time, and repeat this practice every day, the mental and physical being alike are strengthened. Another way in which the mental power may be assisted is by concentrating the attention on one object, and that may be done by receiving help from certain diagrams or tables. Suppose the person wishes to concentrate his thoughts on the character of Jesus, this method would be a help to him. Suppose he has thought of five great characteristics present in Jesus, as goodness, greatness, etc., he may then prepare a table on a long sheet of paper, fill this table with numbers, each of which represents one of these qualities, and when he looks at one of these numbers he concentrates his thoughts on the quality represented by that number. Of course this does not mean that he is merely to repeat the name of the quality, "goodness, goodness, goodness," over and over, for in that case he might just as well be saying "pork, pork, pork," but when he thinks of the quality, he must consider its nature, what it is, how it was manifested, and so on. For instance, suppose the first quality to be goodness, the second beneficence, the third charity, the fourth his nature as a saviour, the fifth his knowledge.
In this way all the numbers must be taken in a different order each time, and so the mind remains fixed on the subject and does not wander away. This is not abstract thinking, it is always connected with some quality. There is another way in which we may be helped. Instead of keeping anything before our eyes, or keeping a paper in a certain position we can use some part of the body. The heart can be used for that purpose. We Hindus say that while that heart has two auricles and two ventricles it has also eight petals, and suppose this to be represented by the form of a lotus flower, which has eight petals, and in the centre another point making nine. Different traits of character, all of them pure and spiritual, are connected with all these different parts. Suppose that we think of our heart as being divided in this way, and while we are sitting alone in silence we think of the first quality, then of
the second quality, and locate these in the different petals of the Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
Surat