Book Title: Systems of Indian Philosophy
Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

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Page 169
________________ 112 THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY may last long and be perpetuated, in order that it may .continue to be for the good and happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, to the good and the gain and the weal of gods and men ? They are these : 1. The four earnest meditations. 2. The fourfold great struggle against sin. 3. The four roads to saintship. 4. The five moral powers. 5. The five organs of spiritual sense. 6. The seven kinds of wisdom. 7. The noble eightfold path." The four earnest meditations alluded to are meditations on the body, the sensations, the ideas and the reason. The fourfold struggle against sin is the struggle to prevent sinfulness, the struggle to put away sinful states which have arisen, the struggle to produce goodness and the struggle to increase goodness. The fourfold struggle comprehends in fact a life-long, earnest, unceasing endeavour on the part of man towards more and more of goodness and virtue. The fourfold roads to saintship are the four means—the ill, the exertion, the preparation, the investigationby which it is acquired. In later Buddhism gia means occult powers but what Gautama meant was probably the influence and power which the mind, by long training and exercise, can acquire over body. The five moral powers and five organs of spiritual sense are faith, energy, thought, contemplation, investigation, joy, repose, serenity. The eightfold path we have referred to.? 7. In the Abhidhammathasangaho, these seven 'jewels' are described under the title atfugleng and as follows: 1. EITT ATT 2. Fant #*#947711 Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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