________________
SUTRAS
THE KEY TO THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
39
sights and emotions cannot exist in nothingness, nor can intention or thinking arise from nothing. 8
The individual impulse of life - jiva - our very consciousness - possesses a number of extraordinary abilities of which we presently know and use only a minor part.
Knowledge is one of the most significant of these features. It gives us the initial key to the unknown part of our consciousness. Therefore the first chapter of the Tattvarthasutra focuses primarily on this theme.
8 The current idea that life was generated by the mixing of material substances in the surf of the oceans is barely one-hundred years old. Though entirely unproven, this grotesque hypothesis is surprisingly widely believed in.
It basically supposes that chaotically whirling matter would generate a living organism that in an inexplicable manner 'emanates consciousness like the liver secretes bile. Consciousness is then thought to be a subtle, ether-like substance that radiates out from the brain and illuminates a particular scene.
What the hypothesis does not take into consideration is that this still needs a spectator, - someone who really observes the scene 'illuminated by the imaginary ether-like substance. In a similar way light by itself does not produce sight without someone actually seeing it.
This pseudo-material idea fails to explain even simple phenomena like memory, intuition and emotions. It totally ignores intuitive insights into abilities and knowledge that could not possibly have been acquired or trained during the present life (examples are prodigies like Mozart, Blaise Pascal, Yehudi Menuhin etc., whose extraordinary abilities were not gained by training and also cannot be explained by mere talent). For alĩ this there must exist a basis of individuality that continues during time and is independent of material factors.
It is certainly everybody's own choice if he wants to believe in a model of the world that presumes matter as the central governing factor of the universe. Yet this model basically concludes that the continuation of the species may be the only possible value of life - and in the long run even this would prove insignificant. Those who believe in this speculative idea block all search for and access to a purpose of life beyond this materialistic model.
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
