Transmutation of Personality through Preksha Meditation

Author(s): Tulsi Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

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as is found in Jainism is not to be found elsewhere. Mild moderate, intense-an appropriate system of meditation on each of these three levels has been prescribed in Jainism. All these techniques primarily refer to karma not to the body. The system of Jain meditation is a process of demolishing the karma and dissolving the past impressions.
It seems to me that some scholars having read a chapter on the austere living of a Jain muni formed an idea that the mortification of the body or the endurance of endless pain constituted the Jain religion. In reality the penance is there not to torture the body but to develop equanimity in the face of prevailing hardships.
Q. You just said that to mortify one's flesh is no religion, but the capacity to endure pain is. But is it not necessary to mortify the flesh so as to develop the capacity for enduring pain?
Ans. There are many forms of religion. Forbearance, straightforwardness, gentleness, and freedom from greed are forms where the accent is on the disciplining of the mind, and not on enduring pain. Therefore, the question of deliberately punishing the body for the sake of religion does not arise. There remains the question of favourable and unfavourable circumstances. Both kinds of situations arise in life. To develop the capacity to face both favourable and unfavourable circumstances with equanimity is religion. An illustration should make this point clear.
A patient goes to the doctor for the treatment of his ailment. The doctor advises him to undergo surgery. Surgery causes pain to the body. It is not the doctor's intention to cause pain and the patient's objective, too, is to find freedom from pain, not to court it. Still there is pain and the patient endures it. Just as an operation is not intended
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