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A SOURCB-BOOK İN JAINA PHILOSOPHY and mokşa. The Buddhist conception of nirvāna is negative, it is the state of freedom of vision. It is a state of nothingness. It is the flowing out of the empirical states just like the blowing out the flame of the lamp. It is the Dukhanirodha. We have already seen that attempts have also been made to interprete the state of nirvana as a positive state of bliss. Some philosophers say that the Buddha carried the tradition of the Upanişads. Therefore his conception of nirvana is positive in content, as refering to the state of bliss (ānanda). The Buddha very often refers to the attainment of the Brahmatva. This type of differing interpretations have been given due to the Buddha's silence on metaphysical problems.
The way to the attainment of mokṣa or nirvāna have also been presented by the Jainas. The Jainas say that the way to the highest realisation of mokşa is possible through the synthesis of the triple path of samyagdarśana (right intuition), samyagñāna (right knowledge) and samyagcăritra (right conduct). The Buddha enunciated the eight-fold path as the fourth noble truth which is mentioned as the dukhanirodha mārga, the way to the cessation of the suffering. This path is the eight-fold path : samyagd rşți (right attitude), samyaksankalpa (right resolve), samyakvāca (right speech), samyak-karma (right effort), samyakājīva (right way of living), samyakvyāyāma (right action), samyaksmrti (right thoughts) and samyaksamadhi (right concentration). It is also called middle path (madhyama marga)
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PRAMANAVADA
There are variations in the emphasis on the importance of the different pramānas by the Buddhists and the Jainas. The Jainas consider valid cognition corresponding to the external reality as the pramāna, (yatharthajñāna). But the Buddhist philosophers refer to the pramāna as that knowledge which is inconsistent, which is not incoherent and which leads to the knowledge of the unknowns. The
1 Saudarānanda 16/28, 29 2 Pramāgamavisamvādijfānamajfātāıthaprakāšo vā.
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