Sectional Studies In Jainology II

Author(s): Klaus Bruhn
Publisher: Klaus Bruhn

Page 10

Sectional Studies
K. Bruhn
$9 Criticism of action $7 Free will etc.
VIII
3.11 Status of good actions 3.12 Further fundamental aspects 3.13 Structural phenomena ... (SP) 3.14 Moral code
II, VII, IX
$3 Secular moral code
code of the Jaina community can be viewed as a whole (other societies are less uniform). The Jaina code, nevertheless, combines Jaina and non-Jaina elements, and it is also not free from conflicts between orthodox and pragmatic attitudes. A general issue, which is independent from the character of a given code, is the treatment of human relations considered in their entirety (e.g. father/son, husband/wife, wife. givers/wife-takers, monk/layman, guru/fisya, Jaina/non-Jaina). This perspective amounts to an atomization of human relations comparable to the atomization or par ticularization of life in a survey of situations. We mention here from Jainism only three relationships which have a special significance in the wider Indian context, i.e. the relationship between the son and the deceased) father (JAINT Ka: p.234, fn.38), the relationship between Jainas and non-Jainas (PUSKARAMUNI DA: 511-23), and the mores connected with gift exchange (SANGAVE Co: 327-28, dowry issue).
List Three demonstrates by itself a more or less pronounced departure from the traditional vocabulary. Crucial is the place accorded in a modern description of Jaina ethics to the chains of terms. They should be viewed in the first place as subjects of philological studies, and not as unfailing guidelines in our attempts to organize the material
$4. Further observations on sectional studies
BRUHN Ah (1994) is an improvement over BRUHN Se (1991), and the present article (1993) is mainly a tabular combination of the two previous studies. In contrast to 1991, 1994 is closely linked with the vocabulary of the texts. It is mainly for this reason that 1994 could not incorporate all the material contained in 1991.
Our subsection 3.2 has been added to 3.1 in order to give more emphasis to the interrelation between ethics and natural philosophy. Caution in 3.3 was omitted accidentally in 1991 where it would have found its place in "TV". In the title of 3.3 we had to choose between singular and plural. We preferred the plural, since the general opposition to actions which is found in Jainism could likewise be called a "metarule": see 3.11 infra. For practical, rather than for logical, reasons we have included superfluous and peripheral rules in one single subsection (3.4). In 1994, the issue of superfluous rules is touched on under the caption Zone des... Selbstverständlichen" Of the four passions, mostly occurring as the full tetrad, only two opposites (.e. contentment and humility as opposed to "greed' and 'pride') have been specified in 1991 in IV". However, the study of 35 started already in BRUHN So. In 1991, faith, or rather lack of faith, is mentioned under "wrong consciousness", which is found again in "TV". The main subject of 3.7 is atonement (an important institution, and in the specific context of monastic discipline loaded with technicalities); see the "secon part of CAILLAT At.
The threefold subdivision of situations (3.8-10) accentuates the importance of the situation in which the agent is. The position 3.8 includes not only basic differences (c.g. male vs female, young vs. old) but, in principle, all significant differences between different individuals (refer in this connection to MÜLLER AI, pp.66 ff.). Sub
n 3.11 (good actions) has been separated from 3.12 on account of its special significance. See 1994: 99 ("excursus"), BRONKHORST Me: 26, and DUNDAS Jn: 273 ("minimising of action"). Subsection 3.12 corresponds directly to $ 7 in 1994 with its ultimate source "VIII" in 1991. The title of "VIII" ("items for modern analysis") is, however, misleading, since the "analysis started already in the ancient texts. Subsec tion 3.13, parallel to 1.8 and 2.8, illustrates that SP are also relevant to Jaina ethics (pp.36-37). The moral codes, or 3.14, has been included in Jaina ethics, although it could just as well have been treated as a section in its own right (refer to 1994:$ 3). Basically, the Jainas had a puritanical code which stood for social order and security and was thus opposed to chaos and confusion. Under the circumstances, the moral
Sectional studies are basically concerned with separation rather than with relationship. But we have to distinguish between the situation within a single frame subject and the relationship between two or more different frame subjects. In the first case, we separate within the frame subject different sections (subsections) from one another, but at the same time we systematically study the internal connecting lines. This is normally not indicated by special positions in the sectional and subsectional lists. But such studies are a matter of course, and in many cases an examination of the connecting lines is suggested in the explanations accompanying the subsectional lists. In the sec. ond case, we have to consider in our studies a second frame subject which is outside the primary frame subject. Here the study of the external connecting lines (frame subject A versus frame subject B) is, in principle, as necessary as the study of the internal connecting lines (.e. section versus section, subsection versus subsection) However such a study is not central to our scheme, and we regard it primarily as part and parcel of the current canon». However, a special provision (e.g. a separate subsection on monastic rules in Jaina texts vis-à-vis monastic rules in Hindu texts) can be made in selected cases.
In the case of relationships between different frame subjects one is not only com