Week 7 Notes
Path of Purification
Samvar and Nirjara
Jain
Dharma has attempted to reform and ennoble every facet of an individual’s
life. Life becomes distorted even if one
facet is not properly disciplined and directed.
SAMVAR
At
this stage everything that we have learnt is brought together under one roof,
so you may see many repetitions eg Principles, virtues. At the same time it demonstrates that the
philosophy is very simple and straightforward to follow. At advanced levels it just gets detailed yet
remains a simple philosophy.
Jainism
shows 57 ways of avoiding influx of karma.
These can be grouped into:
1.
Habit
of Carefulness in daily activities (Samiti) – 5
Of the 5, pay particular attention to these as laymen:
·
Regulation of
walking so as not to injure any living beings
·
Regulation of
speech to avoid hurting others feelings
·
Regulation of
eating of food, quantity, variety, frequency
2.
Control
of Mind, Body and Speech (Gupti) – 3. Influx of karma takes place through at
least through one of this, so it is vital to keep control over them.
·
Regulation of
mind to allow only pure thoughts. Master
the mind. Distraction, impure thoughts
and ignorance should be removed.
·
Regulation of
speech, observing silence or speaking only as much necessary
3.
Cultivation of
virtues – 10. To counteract the 4 inner
enemies, we engage in virtues we learnt earlier - the 5 main principles plus
austerity, humility, contentment, renunciation, self-restraint
4.
Bhavna –
reflecting or contemplating on 12 concepts.
·
Most of the
concepts will not be new to you by now.
But what Jainism calls for is conscious thinking, meditating,
contemplating on these concepts.
·
This is an
intellectual exercise meant to convince, clarify and fortify your adherence to
the path.
The 12 Bhavnas are
1.
Transitory
nature of everything, impermanence of the world. What causes us pain is our insistence of
things of our liking remaining permanent
2.
No
protection. No one protects us from
pain. We are masters of our own
Karma. We have to learn to bear them on
our own.
3.
Life and Death –
the continuous cycle is endless. A
purpose must be found, if there is one.
4.
Loneliness – I
am alone, I alone chart the course of my life, I alone bear the fruit of my
karma, I cannot relieve others of their karma.
5.
Separateness – I
am the soul, not the body. The world, my
family, my body are all different and separate from my real self.
6.
Impurity of the
body – the body is impure made of blood, flesh and excrement. But body must be looked after as it is the
vehicle to liberation
7.
Ashrav –
contemplate on the inflow of Karma and its effects. All causes that create Karmic inflow should
be avoided.
8.
Samvar –
contemplate on the ways of stopping influx.
Contemplate on the virtues that lead to stoppage of influx.
9.
Nirjara –
contemplate on the ways of shedding Karma
10.
Universe –
contemplate on the nature of the universe, the four realms of existence (in the
sathio).
11.
Rarity of
Enlightenment – it is difficult acquire the right knowledge. Take the advantage to develop right authority.
12.
Reflection on
true nature of religion and on 3 fold path of liberation as preached by
Tirthankars.
5.
Tolerating
trouble and hardships.
NIRJARA
Karma come to fruition and are shed off, but at the
same time new karma are bound. Therefore
Karma should be shed off before they produce new Karma.
The way to do this is by Penance or Tapa. Tapa can be
split into internal and external.
Tap should be done with the right attitude. Never to show off ones capability of doing
Tapa. Tapa is an individual’s effort.
EXTERNAL TAPA
1.
Fasting
2.
Semi Fastning –
eating less than one’s needs or apetite
3.
Limiting variety
4.
Giving up
delicacies
5.
Lonely
habitation – Staying in a secluded place away from people
6.
Mortification –
putting the body through hardship, but in a way that does not harm the mind
INTERNAL TAPA
1.
Confession or
repentance of sins
2.
Reverence or
humble and modest behaviour
3.
Rendering
Service to saints
4.
Study of
Scriptures
5.
Meditation
6.
Renunciation
Only a person who is imbued with full faith in the
validity of the Jain philosophy and is possessed of the right knowledge of soul
and matter can progress further on this path.
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