Preksha Dhyana Basic Principles

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 10

become an efficient tool for steadying the ever wandering mind. If one concentrates in perceiving any external object, he finds that his mind has steadied and his train of thoughts has almost halted. Similarly when one concentrates on the perception of his own internal phenomena such as sensations, vibrations or even thoughts, he will realize that the mind has stopped its usual meandering and is fully engaged in perception. Continued concentrated perception of intrinsic processes will ultimately enable one to perceive the subtle bodies.
In 'preksă', perception always means experience bereft of the duality of like and dislike. When the experience is contaminated with pleasure or pain, like and dislike, perception loses its primary position and becomes secondary.
Impartiality and equanimity are synonymous with Prekşă. Prekşā is impartial perception, where there is neither the emotion of attachment nor aversion, neither pleasure nor displeasure. Both these states of emotion are closely and carefully perceived but not experienced. And because both are perceived from close quarters, it is not difficult to reject both of them and assume a neutral position. Thus equanimity is essentially associated with preksā.
Our sense-organ of sight is merely an instrument of perception of an object; it is neither responsible for its existence nor does it derive pleasure (or pain) from it. The same applies to the purely perceptive consciousness. He, whose 'perception' and 'knowledge' are pure, does neither attract new karmic matter nor does he suffer the effect of the old accumulated karmas.