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V. II]
DOCTRINE OF DHYANA: DHARMADHYANA
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centration of thought, and not of perception. Now, as one can canalize one's thought for an evil as well as a good purpose, the dhyāna is broadly classified into two categories viz. inauspicious or evil (aprasasta) and auspicious or good (prasasta). What leads to the inflow and bondage of bad karmic matter is inauspicious concentration, and what leads to the dissociation or destruction of karmic matter is auspicious concentration.' We shall leave out of account the first category of dhyana in view of its lack of bearing on our topic.2 The second category of dhyana is divided into two types viz. dharmadhyāna and śukla-dhyāna. Each of these types are again considered in a number of ways. Let us begin with the dharma-dhyana which is the primary condition of spiritual development.
(a) Dharma-dhyāna
The Sthanāngasūtra expounds dharma-dhyana in these fourfold aspects viz. (1) its objects, (2) the signs (lakṣaṇa) of a soul possessed of this dhyana, (3) its conditions (alambana), and (4) its afterthoughts.* The immaculate and infallible nature of the revelation (ajñā), the fact of universal suffering (apāya) and its conditions, the nature of the fruition (vipaka) of various karmans, and the structure (samsthāna) of the universe are the four objects of the dharma-dhyāna. The concentration of thought on account of the meditation (vicaya) on these objects is called dharma-dhyāna. The characteristic sign of a soul capable of this type of concentration is its natural love for and faith in the path it has selected to tread upon and the system of thought which it has been initiated in. Exposition (vācana), critical enquiry (pratipracchana), repeated study (parivartana), and reflection (anuprekṣā) are the conditions that lead to such concentration of mind. The mind muses upon the following subjects when it retires to the normal state after the concentration: the loneliness of the self in its wanderings, the fleeting nature of the worldly things, the absence of spiritual wellbeing in the world of mortality, and the nature of the world as an
1 See SSi on TS, IX. 28. Subhacandra distinguishes three categories of dhyāna: (1) prasasta, (2) asat, and (3) śuddha.-Jñānārṇava, pp. 66-7 (verses 29-31).
2 Vide supra, footnote I, p. 281. The Prakrit term is dhamma... dharmya.
4 SthSu, IV. I. 247.
5 The SthSu mentions these four characteristic signs: (1) predilection for the revelation (ājñāruci), (2) natural predilection for truth (nisarga-ruci), (3) predilection for the scriptures (sütraruci) and (4) predilection for the deep study of the scriptures (avagadha-ruci).-SthSu, IV. 1. 247.
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