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भ० महावीर स्मृति मंध।
true spiritual teachings, has ing come acrosg them it is dificult to believe them, and they are difficult to pract18C..
Onc important part of the caching is thant se asc not our body's We are not a body lasing & soul, wc arc a soul hasing # body We are nogers, our body is not a knower. We should not say "I am thin","I am fat " we should say " My body is thin, "My body 14 fat". In a little book called Samadhi Shatala vcrsc 15 there is this. "The cause of the misery of embodiment fics in self-identification & ith the body" And again, ersc 69: "Atoms come into and go out of this composite mais called the body and occupy the same spacc as thc soul Yat the ignorant imaginc thcsc atoms to be the self, through false identification of the body with the immortal self " As I understand it, we, humans, arc a subtic combination of soul god matter, and all we have to do in order to reach a satisfatton condition 10 which there is no pain or micry but cserlasting blissfulness, in to separate the soul and matter. This can bc donc slowly or quickly. The rules for doing it are of two kinds, those for beginners, compartively casy, and those for the more spritually advanced more difficult
As I understand the doctrines, I any he who is conscious and scotient i my body of flesh and blood, is neither conscious nor acntient.
We develope our real nature by controlling and eventually removing the passions ( kashāyas ) especially anger, pridc, deceitfulness and greed. This is done gradually through stages of development ( gunast Irānas)
All the rules of conduct are based on love (daya). Love consists in doing a kindness without any expectation of return, rejoicing at thc prosperity of another person, and not being envious, sympathiring with those in distress and where possible helping to relieve it, and with regard to criminals love would consist in an attitude of pity for the future miscry which they are generating for themselves. These rules arc not commande. The Jain deity 18sues no commands. These miles are an aspect. The mode of behaviour, of the man who practises them.
With regard to causation, in every event there are two causes, namely, the substantial, and the instrumental ( upadāna and nimitta) For instance, when the gup melts the snow on the mountain the snow 18 the suubstanial cause, and the sun 18 the instrumental cause of the event.
As the book for which this contribution is satended wall undoubtedly be circulated among the Jains, who are already well acquainted with the doctrines I peed make no further reference to them, and those to which I have referred have been given by me to show my understanding and appreclation of them
As I have already said, the truth about life and the universe 18 nowhere else to be found.
