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94: Śramana, Vol. 64, No. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2013
Hemacandra's instruction to the practitioner telling him "one should imagine one's own luminous soul residing in the eight petaled lotus," a spot generally reserved for the arhat, who, being in the center, has the remaining eight worshipful things and beings surrounding him on the eight petals of the lotus. 26 Hemacandra elaborates on how devotion to the Arhat in the center of the eight other petals (worshipful beings/things), can lead one to actually become the arhat being worshipped in saying:
"By the practice of matierial meditation, the meditating yogi, who identifies himself with the omniscient, finds himself to be an
omniscient. The omniscient on whom I am meditating is myself. Having thus identified himself with the omniscient, the meditating yogi is accepted as an omniscient. By meditating on the detached, one himself becomes detached and gets free from the karmic bondage. By meditating on the attached, one himself becomes a victim of attachment. He who constantly indulges in a certain sentiment, comes to be identified with that particular sentiment, just as a crystal that assumed the color in juxtaposition of which it is placed."27
"The
This passage is nearly identically parallel to the description of Rūpastha meditation in the Jñānāraṇava text which says impure soul becomes one with that thought-action, with which he is unified; as a crystal attains the color, with which it is associated with."28 Here in these descriptions of Rūpastha meditation is where I see the foundation of Jain ritual devotion. More so than other Indian traditions, Jainism stresses that the soul is a mirror, or a crystal, which is commonly used to describe karma as a dust gathering on this mirror, hindering its reflection. In this context however the soul as a mirror wiped clean of the dust of karma is able to reflect what is set in front of it, including the siddhachakra and Namokara mantra. Hemacandra and Subhacandra are literally suggesting that "you are what you think," and that to meditate on the Arihanta centered in the Siddhacakra with all one's mind is essentially allowing one to become a mirror image whatever is
