Spiritual Awakening and other Essays

Author(s): Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 35

Besides, the aspirant should give himself to serious contemplation: 'who am I?' Why there are inflow and bondage of Karmas? How Karmas can be overthrown? What is liberation? and what is manifested nature of soul on being liberated?83 If Ajñā-vicaya establishes oneself in truth, Apāya-vicaya lays stress on the means of realizing the essential nature of truth.
(3) Vipāka-vicaya Dharma-dhyāna implies the reflection on the effects which Karmas produce on the diverse empirical
souls.84
(4) The reflection on the nature and form of this universe constitutes what is called as Saṁsthāna-vicaya Dharmadhyāna. 85 This kind of Dhyāna impresses upon the mind the vastness of the universe and the diversity of its constituents. By this Dhyāna the aspirant realizes his own position in the universe.
These four types of Dhyāna serve twofold purposes namely, auspicious reflection and self-meditation; i.e. they supply the material for the intellect and offer inspiration to the self for meditation. Though they do not seem to suggest any process of meditation, their subject matter is such as to evoke active interest for nothing but self-realization through self-meditation. Thus Dharma-dhyāna is meditation as well as reflection, the latter may pass into the former and the former may lapse into the latter. In other words, the four kinds of Dhyāna are reflective when intellectual thinking is witnessed, and they are meditative when the mind attains stability in respect of them. The best kind of Dharma-dhyāna is to meditate upon the self by fixing one's mind in it after renouncing all other thoughts. 86
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Spiritual Awakening (Samyagdarśana) and Other Essays