Preksha Dhyana Self Awareness by Relaxation

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

Page 53

(c) Separation, by melting in a furnace, of gold from
dross :-Here is pure gold and there lies the dross. (d) In the same way separation of the self from the
non-self :-Here is SELF and there lies the body. This is wisdom.
Body is material, self is non-material. Body is perishable, self is eternal. The separation is real when wisdom developes. It is a great achievement. And the benefit accrues from Kāyotsarg, i.e. self-awarness by relaxation. The realistic evaluation of the body, the physical body, an ally of the spiritual self in his war against the karma-šarira, is possible only under relaxation.
Wisdom of Abandonment
When the wisdom is fully developed, the capacity for abandonment also develops. Abandonment is then painless whether it is of the body or the sensuous pleasures or the family or the wealth. The capacity is so high that anything can be cast off like a shell at any time without any suffering because there is no attachment. When the capacity for abandonment is fully developed, there is full awareness of the SELF all the time. I am spiritual self and all the rest are just non-self, associated but not identical.
Wisdom is different from intelligence in that the latter is replete with likes and dislikes. This is pleasant and that is unpleasant. Wisdom transcends the duality of like and dislike-attachment and aversion. Equanimity and tranquillity take the place of the like and dislike. The benefit derived from relaxation is substitution of intelligence by wisdom.
As wisdom matures, intelligence takes a back seat and transcendence of gain-loss, pleasure-pain, criticism-adulation, life-death, and such other dualities is natural and effortless. The dualities are replaced by a single entity, equanimity and bliss.
38