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Chapter 8.
Cintās: Reflections
In the preceding pages I have tried to put forward a synthesis of the immensely rich cultural and doctrinal heritage bequeathed to the sādhvis. They comprise a study in depth of the tradition, doctrine and life of the ascetics, a study that has been both a personal one and one that has been inspired and guided by the sādhvis themselves. As in every religious, ascetic tradition, the sădhvis must follow an ideal which is very demanding. This ideal presents certain highly particular features that we have described, each of which constitutes for the sādhvis a belief to which they are bound to adhere, even if, not infrequently, they are somewhat vague about the bases of these beliefs - not through laziness or ill-will on their part, but because on the whole their training remains fairly elementary. Now these beliefs give rise to numerous rules drawn up in order to help the ascetics put their ideal into practice. One recognises, of course, that these rules constitute the solid staff upon which to lean during the journey towards Liberation, but they are only means. So what is important is to discern those ones which are inspired by the essential spirit of the dharma, and thus to distinguish between those that are essential and those that are less so. One knows also that these rules have been conceived and formulated in a far distant age, in a given context. Without minimising in any way the radical asceticism taught by the doctrine, an asceticism which demands a transcendence of the ordinary state of human life, and at the same time recognising that certain ones of these rules are, in our own days, obsolete, I am going to try now to share some of the reflections that have ripened during the course of my study of the Scriptures and my encounters with the sădhvis. These reflections will be presented under three licadings: questions, hopes and, thirdly, a statement of the contribution the Jaina dharma can make to contemporary spirituality.
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