Jainism

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

Page 18

JAINISM
KINDS OF SUBSTANCE
The universe is one reality but it is not one homogeneous substance. In that part of the universe which is not ourselves we find insentient matter as well as other beings sentient like ourselves; also space, time and something to account for movement and for stationariness.
As religious doctrine concerns only living beings we may make the simple division of the universe into:
Substance (dravya)
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Alive (jiva)
Not alive (ajiva) Substance not alive may for the moment be left without sub-division.
The particular substance in organised beings which makes them alive, in the sense of having feeling, awareness, and self-conscious activity is not generally acknowledged by science to exist, and some proof of its existence is, therefore, necessary.
All proof starts from some known fact which does not itself need to be proved. The fact upon which the proof of the existence of conscious substance is built is the fact that motion of matter (pudgala) is not consciousness, whether the motion be in the shape of nerve tremor or in the shape of brain molecules vibrating. Consciousness is different in kind and not only in degree from vibration of matter or any other activity of matter.
If this fact is not known it can be learned by comparing in thought an example of consciousness with an example of movement of physical matter. Take, for instance, the