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this is the process of action which generates Samsāra Right conduct is the reversal of this process, leading from bondage to freedom It follows, thus, that action is a real complex of spiritual, mental and physical elements with a variable degree of freedom such that the complex may be tending towards its erosion or enhancement 12 In as far as the soul forgets its true nature and follows the directive of desires and passions, it moves downwards and outwards into the vortex of matter and into greater ingorance, bondage and suffering At every level action remains the expression of the soul's energy and its power to cause a real change (Parināma) to itself and its environments 13 The concomitants, direction and result of activity, however, vary greatly When the soul acts through a passion-tainted mind, it gets involved in the obstructive accumulations of matter but it can start shedding this burden and move inwards and upwards
Action is conceived as twofold, as motion (Parispanda) and as change of state (Parināma) 14 The soul in its state of freedom has an innate upward motion15 and a pure change of state in terms of the operation of its infinite qualities of power, knowledge and bliss In the state of bondage the soul is the cause of its own good and evil mental transformations and the motions of the physical body are appropriated by it The basic activity of the soul is its causal functioning in relation to its own states, the making of the soul of itself through its own functioning 16 In all its psychic activity through which the soul determines itself, it functions through its own power and remains within a process of self-determination though its resultant accumulation of matter functions as a concomitant causal factor 17
Rival views denying Action or Freedom
On the Jaina view, thus, action is real and is the expression of the real faculties of the soul making or unmaking it At the same time, action effects a real change in the world Although action simultaneously connects the soul and the world, it does not require that the soul should abandon its autonomy wholly The reality of action and the autonomy of the soul in this regard, are thus
