Jainism

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

Page 36

JAINISM ideas. Also if a dog sees his master beckon with his hand, the dog interprets the sign and knows that his master wants him to come.
3. Any energy which obscures psychic knowledge (avadhijnana). That is knowledge of material things known by the soul directly without contact with the endorgan of sense (clairvoyance, etc.)
4. Any energy which obscures mind knowing. That is, knowledge of the ideas and thoughts of others (manaparyavajnana.)
5. Any energy which obscures unlimited knowledge (omniscience) (kevalajnana.)
The last three kinds of knowledge are acquired directly by the soul without the intervention of the senses and the mind.
These are the energies in the first class. And of the five kinds of knowledge, the first three can be of two kinds, false or true; thus making eight kinds of knowledge.
In gaining knowledge by the senses (matijnana), the following process is gone through, namely, the sense, organ, ear, hand, etc., is brought into contact with the vibrations from the external object, and an excitation in the sense organ is aroused (vyanjana-avagraha). Then follows an excitation in the mind (artha-avagraha) and the consciousness comes to be in the state where it asks the question: “What is this”? and the question refers to the object sensed, and not to the excitation in the sense organ. The mind may also pass through this stage when, upon picturing something mentally to itself which was seen in the past, it asks the question: "What was that?"