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336
TATTVĀRTHA SŪTRA
The Persons Authorised :
Of the six types of samhanana —that is, bodily set-upthree-viz. vajrarṣabhanārāca, ardhavajrarṣabhanārāca, nārāca? — are considered to be superior. Only a person who is possessed of a superior type of samhanana is authorised to perform dhyāna. For the bodily power capable of yielding mental power requisite for performing dhyāna can possibly be found only in a body with the just mentioned three types of samhanana-not in a body with the remaining three types of it. After all, it is well known that the chief basis of mental power is body while bodily power depends on bodily set-up; hence it is that none except those possessing a superior type of samhanana or bodily set-up is authorized to perform dhyāna. To the extent that bodily set-up is weak to the same extent is mental power meagre; and to the extent that mental power is meagre to the same extent is the steadiness of mind meagre. Hence persons with a weak bodily set-up-that is, persons with an inferior type of saṁhanana-can bestow on any object, whether auspicious or otherwise, so little concentration that it does not deserve to be treated as a case of dhyāna.
The Nature :
Generally speaking, a stream of cognition having at this moment one thing for its object, at the next moment a second thing, at the next moment after that a third thing is unsteady like the flame of a lamp left in the midst of wind blowing from different directions. To withdraw such a stream of cognitionssuch a thought-process—from all the remaining objects and to fix it on some one desired object—that is to say, to prevent a stream of cognitions from becoming such as it out to grasp numerous
1. In the Digambara texts persons possessing any of the three superior types of samhanana are considered to be competent to practise dhyāna. However, the Bhäsya and the vrtti on it maintain the view that only persons possessing the two superior types of saṁhanana are so competent.
2. For this see chapter 8, aphorism 12.
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