Some Jaina Canonical Sutras

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 41

STHANANGA (THANAMGA)
27
philosophy of Ajita Kesakambala and Pāyāsi (Jaina Paësi) as described and criticized in the Pāli and Jaina canon. The Ditthivādins or dogmatists hold 'Nothing save the doctrine we uphold, nothing save the dogma we preach is true'. (Thānamga, IV, 4.)
As for the table of contents of Drstivādu, the twelfth anga, as supplied by our text and the Samavāyānga, it has led Dr. Hiralal Jain to think that the Digambara Jaina work called the Satkhandāgama not only preserves the contents of the lost anga but furnishes also a commentary on them.
Our text mentions four kinds of mental concentration (jhāna), cach with its four varieties. The jhāna is defined in Jainism as the resting of consciousness on a single object even for a moment (anto muhuttanuttam cittāvatthānam egavatthummi). The first is called arthudhyānu of which the characteristic mark is self-mortification or that which is resorted to by a person who is oppressed by the fear of the world. The second is raudru or terrific, as it is attended by worst cruelties to life. The third is dharmya or pious, as it is not bereft of the practices of piety as enjoined in the scriptures. The fourth is sukla or purificatory as it serves to purge all impurities due to the karmic effect.