Book Title: Jaina Psychology
Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Previous | Next

Page 103
________________ 86 JAINA PSYCHOLOGY the cow. This stage of memory is called localisation. Thus, retention implies the process or power of preserving the unconscious traces or dispositions of past percepts. Reproduction is the revival of past percepts in the form of images and ideas that pre-supposes the retention of those percepts in the shape of mental traces. Recognition means the cognition of an object knowing it to be old and familiar or as something perceived before. Localisation is the recognition of the object having a temporal and spatial reference to it. In the light of modern psychology, it will be easy to understand the Jaina concept of memory. We have already discussed the position of retention as a latent mental trace. Now, let us turn to the nature of recollection which is also known as reproduction, revival, recall, or representation. RECOLLECTION Recollection is the cognition that has the stimulus of a latent mental trace for its condition. It refers to its content by a form of the pronoun that.'2 The latent mental trace is nothing but the disposition retained by our past experience. Its emergence to the surface of consciousness constitutes the stimulation of recollection. The emergence of recollection is necessarily conditioned by this sort of stimulation. Unless and until this type of stimulation is present, recollection cannot emerge. But how does the latent mental impression serve as the stimulus for the emergence of recollection? It requires another stimulus. The disposition of past percepts, though it may have continued for a certain length of time, does not operate as the cause of recollection unless it is awakened by another stimulus. The stimulus to excite it is admitted to be two-fold by the Jaina.? First of all, the person reproducing his past experience must be competent to do so. Now, what is this competency? It is nothing but the destruction-cum-subsidence of the obscuring karmic veils. This condition is common to every type of cognition. Even the est type of knowledge, viz., omniscience cannot emerge unless P 1 Psychology (Dutt), pp. 117-8. 2 Vasanodbodhahetukā tadityakārā smytih. Pramāņa-mīmāmsā, 1, 2, 3. 3 Avaranakşayopašamasadyśadarśanādisāmagrilabdhaprabodhā tu smytim janayati. Commentary on Pramāņa-mimāmsā, 1, 2, 3.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238