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The other four channels only operate as long as our consciousness is still limited by active or latent karma. Omniscience is characterized by the absence of karmic bonds. Therefore it cannot appear simultaneously with any of the other four channels of knowledge.
Hermann Kuhn
And furthermore once we obtained omniscience, we have no need to experience knowledge by less perfect channels.
- Two simultaneously active channels of knowledge are sense-perception (mati) and external knowledge (sruti). All human beings (except the omniscient) have access to at least these two types of knowledge.
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- Three simultaneously active channels of knowledge are either
sense-perception (mati), external knowledge (sruti) and clairvoyance (avadhi), or
- sense-perception (mati), external knowledge (sruti) and direct mental perception (manah-paryaya).
Since external knowledge depends on sense-perception, sense-perception (mati) and external knowledge (sruti) always operate simultaneously - irrespective of the third channel that is active
- Four simultaneously active channels of knowledge are
- sense-perception (mati)
- external knowledge (sruti)
- clairvoyance (avadhi) and
- direct mental perception (manah-paryaya).
Jain Education International
These are the only four channels available to living beings whose consciousness is restricted by karma.
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