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The Unknown Pilgrims
a well-defined doctrine expressed in a specific language. The words used to transmit the doctrinal teaching are often common to several traditions, but they have taken on within each a special connotation. Without entering into philological details, we may simply say that in the two following Parts the original meanings, or meanings, of the most important words is indicated and then the ideà expressed by this word within the dharma. These words are loaded with meaning, they are the symbols, sap, roots, essence, if one may so express it, of the doctrine. They are never abstract, for, though not entities in themselves, they are linked to other words by a whole network of internal communications and it is precisely because of these close associations. That we are enabled to grasp the fundamental notions those which belong to a whole, to a thought-structure. As one advances further and further along the path, one finds that only a few words are left, all of which express one notion: that which is, the Supreme Reality.
Texts and their contexts
The quoting of texts gives us direct contact; through them we are gripped, so to speak, by the sages and acquire a certain rootedness in the dharma; these quotations are not isolated phenomena, they spring from the bedrock of the doctrine. The texts quoted from part of a vast contextual tapestry woven out of innumerable texts, to which allusion is made in the many reference-notes. Selection cannot but be somewhat subjective and arbitrary; in place of the texts chosen one could well have cited others. However, in the present study certain criteria underlie the choice of texts quoted and references supplied. Those quoted are:
Certain texts which serve as articles of faith for the sadhvis and others which express their vows or comment upon these same vows.
Those which belong to the most ancient Agamas; in this regard care is always taken to go back to the origins.
Those which best transmit the spirit or quintessence of the dharma; in this regard Kundakunda is the great Master.
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