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98
Hermann Kuhn
unknown. We realize how these expansive insights intensify our growth and this infuses us with inspiration and invigorating energy.
As long as we are guided by our notion of growth, we exclude error, misunderstanding and doubt from our insights. While in this state, our comprehension is not obstructed by karmic blocks. With unfailing certainty we now pursue only those impulses that lead us to ever more comprehensive levels.
Though the removal of karma is the primary cause for the rising of our notion of growth, it can also be triggered by the intense study of scriptures describing the expansion of our consciousness.
Our notion of growth might also be activated by the guidance of those who are further advanced on this path. At times their mere presence will produce this effect.
The scriptures mentioned in the sutra are the books of the Jains that deal with the expansion of consciousness in the widest sense.
The scriptures originally were taught by the tirthankaras. tirthankaras (path-builders) are human beings who reached the state of omniscience and pass on their knowledge to others. tirthankaras are not yet liberated, but their liberation is assured.
According to the Jains only few people achieve the status of a tirthankara because an extraordinary stability of body and mind is necessary to retain the bodily form after reaching omniscience.48
48 The twenty-fourth and last tirthankara of the present world-cycle -
Mahavira - was born 599 BC in Vaishali (India). He entered the
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