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cruelty, mercilessness, delusion, attachment-aversion, etc.,, which are abandonable for a spiritual aspirant. Therefore, out of delusion mixed mercy, only delusion and not mercy is abandonable.
The fact that delusion mixed mercy is not abandonable has been beautifully presented by Jainācārya Śrī Vidyāsāgarjī as follows --
Mercy is not a part of delusion but its undoing. The play of mundane pleasures is delusion while the development of mercy is liberation. One is flagrant amber that blights the life while the other is the mascot that gives meaning to life. Yes, partial mercy is not a part of delusion but its partial undoing. The life of indulgence is unconscious ... wilderness. Mercy, kindness, etc., are timeless. The epicentre of mercy is the feeling of consciousness and life giving like nectar. The pitcher of mercy drips with the fragrance of equanimity and who can say that kindness is related to desire?
To summarise, we can say that the fruition of delusion lasts up to the tenth virtue-station (stage of spiritual development). Therefore, the auspicious activities like mercy, kindness, compassion, charity, service, affection, etc., of anyone except the fully detached omniscient Lords will always be flawed with delusion. Therefore, they continuously incur the destructive karmic bondages of the deluding, knowledge obscuring, vision obscuring and obstructive types. Delusion and not the auspiciousness is the reason behind these karmic bondages. Therefore, the auspicious activities of self-study, meditation, renunciation, etc., do not become abandonable just because they happen to be mixed with delusion. It is the destruction of delusion that is essential for the full expression of these auspicious qualities. Only the partial delusion associated with the auspicious activities of mercy, kindness, compassion, charity, service, affection, etc., is abandonable. By discarding this partial delusion these auspicious qualities find their fullest expression. By discarding the auspicious activities we will only facilitate the unacceptable increase of flaws.
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Positive Non-Violence
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