________________
216 RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE JAINAS before the mind, by remembering some particular person who had the quality we wish to develop or improve in ourselves. Also we should hear or read the works of reliable authors on the subject, and get the author's meaning (not our own fancy) into our mind, and remember it.
That is the beginning of the process; next comes the exercise of the understanding. Retaining the essence of the whole idea, divide the subject into its parts, and, by comparison, etc., get to understand the parts, what each part is, and what it is not; then draw some conclusion as to how we can act at particular time, towards some particular person, in some particular place; it must be a particular person, and a particular act, and not general, or else it is like firing without aim.
The next faculty to be exercised is the will. We must find our motives or reasons why we should act in the way concluded. We may find ten or twenty reasons.
Then we think, “This is the truth; there are so many reasons why I ought to do it; why do I not do it?” Then find the obstacles, and resolve them, or remove them.
Then, having the reasons or motive force, with the obstacles removed, make the resolution just at that time to act in a particular way, towards a particular person, at a particular time (and place).
Then carry out the resolution. The change in the social and moral life is the practical object of concentration here.
Afterwards, try to see new aspects, and evolve new ideas, the relation of the thing to the world; and the conclusions should be applicable to our own personality.
That is the end of concentration to improve our conduct. The process can be carried over from one sitting to another; the whole process need not be gone through on one occasion.
Concentration for developing or improving the sensing faculty, that is, the sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, or feeling (touching), would not be an activity of the mind, but a passive state; because, in order to get sensation by the eye, skin, ear, etc., the mental activities must remain passive : comparison, etc., must be stopped for the moment.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
