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CHAPTER NINE
The Nature :
The first two subtypes of sukla-dhyāna have got a common seat-that is to say, both are performed by a person versed in the Pūrva-texts; and that exactly is why both have to do with vitarka or scriptural knowledge. However, even if they are mutually similar in asmuch as vitarka is present in both they are dissimilar inasmuch as the first is characterised by pṛthaktva or difference but the second by ekatva or non-difference. Similarly, the first subtype is characterized by vicara or transition while the second is devoid of it. Hence it is that the first is given the designation prthaktva-vitarkasavicāra, the second the designation Ekatvavitarkaavicāra. Thus when a performer dhyāna-in case he happens to be versed in the Purva-texts then on the basis of such a text, otherwise on the basis of whatever scriptural text he is conversant with-takes up for consideration an inanimate entity like atom etc. or a conscious entity like soul and undertakes in relation to its numerous modes like permanence, destruction, tangibility, nontangibility etc. and with the help of the various nayas like dravyāstika, paryāyāstika etc. a reflection dominated by difference-at the same time when on the basis of whatever scriptural knowledge is available to him he in the interests of reflection switches on from one object-of-the-form-of-substance to another, from a substance to a mode, or from one mode to another, or when similarly in the interests of reflection he switches on from a meaning to a word or from a word to a meaning, or, lastly, when he gives up one of yogas-e.g. that pertaining to manas in order to take up another, then the dhyāna concerned is called pṛthaktvasavitarkasavicāra. For in this dhyāna, on the basis of vitarka or scriptural knowledge and in relation to one substance the variety-bheda or pṛthaktva-of its modes is reflected over from various viewpoints, again likewise on the basis of scriptural knowledge there is in it a transition from one meaning to another, from one word to another, from the meaning to the word, from the word to the meaning, also from one type of yoga to another. On the contrary, when a performer of dhyāna on the basis of whatever scriptural knowledge is available to him
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