Jinamanjari 2001 09 No 24

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 50

in the manner discussed earlier.
These three Jains were also the one's who believed that monks are the only ones who may be able to predict their death. Instead of viewing sallekhana as an embrace of death and purification of the soul, they believe it is a way of pursuing or desiring death. While there are those who argue that one should not desire anything during the observance of sallekhana, these three members contend that merely undergoing sallekhana is an act of desire.
The majority of the Jains I interviewed emphatically argued that sallekhana is not suicide. They believe one's intentions and mentality when undergoing sallekhana is different than those who commit suicide. They agreed that one who commits suicide has a mind full of impure feelings such as greed, anxiety, depression, guilt, and hatred. Suicide, they contend, is also approached violently and often clandestinely by means of cutting, hanging, poisoning or shooting. In short, they believe that suicide is a cowardly way of escaping life, while sallekhana is an act of purifying the soul, embracing life and facing death courageously. An observer of sallekhana is free of any passions, often has consent of a guru or the community, and seeks forgiveness from family and friends.
The dualism between the mind and body as well as the fear of death are two issues that seem unresolved in my discussions with various Jains. According to Jain philosophy, the self (constituted by knowledge and perceptions) is not only separate from, but also superior to, the body. This dualism actually entered the discourse of Western philosophy with Rene Descarte's famous maxim: cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"), but occurred historically around 500 B.C.E.' The dualism between mind and body coupled with the Western concept of time as linear is widely accepted to be a culprit for man's fear of death. According to Ken Wilber in Up From Eden, linear time is an actual type of death denial. In ultimate reality, there is no past and no future; eternity is the condition of no future. Death is also the condition of no future. When man denies death, he refuses to live without a future and thus, is reluctant to live timelessly. As Wilber points out, in denying death, eternity is denied and a future is demanded. However, Wilber also reveals, "but Time is not merely a denial of eternity ... Time is a substitute for eternity, for it allows one