Book Title: Samadhi Tantram
Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 195
________________ Verse 100 answer is that recognition (pratyabhijñāna) of a momentary substance is not real; it is an illusion similar to the false notion of looking at the same old nails or hair that one gets on seeing the regrown nails or hair some days after these have been trimmed. In the aggregates (skandha) are the five functions or aspects that constitute the sentient being: a) form or matter (rūpa), b) sensation or feeling (vedanā), c) perception or cognition (samjñā), d) mental formations or volitions (samskāra), and e) consciousness or discernment (vijñāna). These five aggregates are the substrata for clinging and thus 'contribute to the causal origination of future suffering'. Clinging to the five aggregates must be removed in order to achieve release from the samsara - to attain mokṣa. Other than these momentary ideas, there is nothing which you call as the soul and enjoys the fruits of the karmas. The fear of the future birth is like the fear of the peewit (țițihari) – a kind of shorebird - that sky is going to fall on her." - As Sambhinnamati concluded his submission, the fourth minister Satamati, who believed in nihilism or voidness nairatmyavāda or sunyavāda spoke thus: "This world is unreal and everything that we see - human, animal, pot and board - are illusions. Illusions make us feel their existence as if in a dream. When the world is illusory, how can you prove the existence of the soul, and when the existence of the soul cannot be proved what is the use talking about the next life? Those who observe austerity and rituals for the sake of future happiness unnecessarily get to misery in the present. Such persons are devoid of true knowledge. Just as a deer fruitlessly chases a mirage, those who dream of eternal life in nirvana unthinkingly trouble themselves." When his three colleagues had put forward their views, Svayambuddha rose again to counter each one of them; first 153

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243