Jainism

Author(s): Herbert Warren
Publisher: Divine Knowledge Society

Page 17

JAINISM ourselves in it. In thinking of ourselves we exclude the remainder; and in the remainder we ourselves are excluded. Thus, immediately, the universe, regarded as one whole, consists of two mutually exclusive parts,--oneself, and the rest. Directly we get two mutually exclusive things, there is non-existence of one in the other beyond it! Knowledge is final ground, and no one can know or truly feel, believe, or maintain that the rest of the universe is himself, or that he is the rest of the universe. He knows and can truly believe and maintain that he is related to the rest of the universe, also that the rest is related to him. Thus, to think of one's own non-existence is simply to think of the part of the universe which lies beyond oneself; there, non-existence of oneself is to be found, while he himself exists where he is. Hence nonexistence of oneself is a false idea if it is thought to mean absolute non-existence anywhere, complete annihilation or ceasing to be. So, in a universe of inter-related but mutually exclusive units, regarded as one whole, (though not as one individual whole), while it is a universe of everything that is (itself), it is also a universe of everything that is not (something else). The universe is always the one universe with its same contents of mutually exclusive units. Thus the words existence and nonexistence of the universe produce in the mind the selfsame mental picture of the actual positive omnipresent universe. “Hegel's Logic” is said to show that existence and non-existence are the same if the universe be regarded as one whole. The idea which prevents us from conceiving this is the fixed false idea that non-existence of the universe means absolute non-existence or empty
nothing.