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38
HERMANN KUHN
SUTRAS
How little our Western, matter-oriented concept can guide us, always becomes apparent when we crave concrete, practical orientation. Once life confronts us with crucial, immediate and individual problems, all scientific explanations how the material and mechanical universe works are of no help because they do not address any of our emotions, our motivations or anything that really moves us inside.
The components listed in the sutra encompass far more than just the physical building blocks of our existence. They also describe what governs our actions, what determines our feeling and direction of life, our thinking, our emotions, and how much energy we have at our disposal - irrespective if these factors affect us directly or indirectly. The description gives us a practical key how to steer our life far more efficiently then ever before and how to become aware of previously unknown activities of our consciousness.
The first two components of reality look familiar: Our universe contains bodies and things that can be perceived by our senses. These bodies and things are either endowed with consciousness or not. The Tattvarthasutra calls the essence of consciousness 'jiva' and defines it as 'That what is alive in a living being'. All other elements that do not possess consciousness are called 'ajiva' (literally nonliving). - The individual impulse of life (jiva) is consciousness.
It is easy to describe consciousness, even if there seems to exist a bewildering number of concepts for it. Consciousness is the foundation that must exist before the experience of things, relationships and emotions. All thoughts, all states like joy, pain etc. need a center, a subject, a carrier to whom they belong and who experiences them. In short: A feeling necessarily needs a being that feels. In
7 The term 'element' means that these constitute original forms of reality
that cannot be split into even more basic parts.
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