Book Title: Reals on the Jaina Metaphysics
Author(s): Harisatya Bhattacharya
Publisher: Shatnidas Khetsy Charitable Trust Mumbai

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 250
________________ Matter 235 introspectively looked at. In our feelings and emotions and in our consciousness of our ideational processes, we have experiences which may be and have been fitly called ‘internal. “Now the phrase 'internal experience'", as Professor Stout says, “seems to refer especially to cases in which an experience has other experiences of the same subject for its object; or to cases ....in which an experience is immediately aware of itself as such”. The Indian philosophers recognise this distinction between the External and the Internal experiences and call the former Indriya-pratyakşa and the latter, Mānasa-pratyakşa. In the previous section, we have dealt with the Indian view of the external experience i.e. sensuous perception. In the following lines, the Indian ways of explaining the ideational processes will be considered. INTERNAL EXPERIENCES 'ONE AT A TIME' Internal experiences may be roughly described as experiences in which objects outside us have no active part to play. Ideas of objects are no doubt there but the actual objects are out of the picture. In ideation and feelings a principle which is entirely different from the outside objects and their activities and which may conveniently be looked upon as internal, seems to be alone in operation. This internal principle has its own manner of operation which is one at a time'. One cannot have two sensations at one and the same time. The author of the Nyāya Sūtra's aptly ascribes to the operation of this internal principle our common experience,-- 'TTTTITATEA: 1 i.e the impossibility of varied experiences arising simultaneously. Even our sensuous or external experiences have to obey this order; sensations come up not simultaneously but strictly one after the other. This shows that even in our external experiences, we come across a principle which in a sense, rules them and makes their emergence successive. EVOLUTION OF EXPERIENCES ACCORDING TO THE BUDDHISTS The Buddhist philosophers call the series of conscious Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430