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Cintās: Reflections
691
- Hope that the sādhvis may be able to combine to organise a movement of renewal and may take an interest also in the other ascetic religious traditions (as certain of them have evidenced a desire to do). Asier a study in depth of the other traditions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islām, Christianity, the sadhvis will be ready to encounter members of these traditions. These encounters, to be authentic, must lead to exchanges of a spiritual sort and such exchanges will surely bring about a positive and mutually enriching collaboration.
c) Ratnas: The jewels
We now come to the jewels which comprise the gifts which the Jaina dharma offers to all the ascetics, indeed, to all of humankind:
- Ādhyātmika, the primary of the spiritual, which is the primordial value, over and above everything else. What is of importance is the antariktā, the interiority whose roots are embedded in svădhyāya, the meditative study of Scripture.
- Tapas, the purificatory value of austerity of which the lofties form is dhyāna, mental concentration, that brings about the unification of the whole being
- Ahimsă, the power that resides in self-mastery combined with an appreciation of cosmic reality, which leads to respect for all beings in one's personal life and in the life of a community and nation.
- Aparigraha, a challenge to the spirit of possession on all its guises.
- Virya, heroic courage in the pursuit of the ideal. - Vihāra, the outward sign of the human condition, of life on pilgrimage: be-ing, ontologically speaking, is fixed nowhere.
- Jñana-dana, the gift of knowledge to all living beings through pravacanas, instruction-sessions on the Scriptures - a unique feature in the history of universal women's monasticism.
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