PHIL 202-3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Samyak, Dharma, Kevala Jnana
PHIL 202
Ch. 7 Jaina Traditions (pt. 1)
Overview
• Simple message: The path to happiness, truth, and self-realization is the path of
restraint. Happiness is the product not of doing but of not-doing; not of embracing the
world but of disengaging from it.
• Seeming paradox
o Ascetic character, but also dynamic engagement with the world
o Worldly, yet other-worldly
o Fits with idea about the transformative power of renunciation
Oerie, cot’d
• Path of renunciation conquers attachments and sorrows
• For Jainas, the only battle worth winning is the conquering of the attachment to the
world
o The most difficult battle as well
• Message fo the Jias itos o oueos
o 24 ascetic prophets
o Also ko as Tithakaas—builders of the bridges across the ocean of birth
and death
o Jainas take their name from these prophets
o Most recent is Mahavira (c.599–527 BCE)
Oerie, cot’d
• Jina: highest expression of the Jaina ideal
o Entirely detached from the world
o Focus of veneration in two forms
• Chakravartin: benevolent ruler, with crown
• Arhat: perfected being, without adornment
o Restraint, self-discipline, commitment not to harm
• ahimsa paramo dharma: o-iolee is the supee path
o Commitment to radical non-interference
• Engagement generates karma, while if one ceases to act (mind, speech,
body), one can truly avoid harming others and oneself
Oerie, cot’d
• All life forms posses an eternal soul (jiva)
o Many of these forms are invisible to the eye
• We cannot act without harming these, and hence, ourselves
o Accrue negative karma
• But lack of intention to commit harm is important
o Karma accrued here is less heavy and dark
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• Attachment to the world leads to a lack of knowing the true Self
o True Self has nothing to do with the world
• It is fundamentally other, silent tranquility, radiates peace
Oerie, cot’d
• Samyak darshan: ight faith o oet ituitio
o When the conscious mind sees the soul
o Starting point of Jainism
• Many communities
o Two basic sects
• Diagaaa: aked o sky-lad
• Svetambara: white-clad
o “plit etee these sets oe ideas oeig aseti patie, oe’s
spiritual capacities, the nature of the Jina, the worship of idols, and the use of
liig eigs i oship
The Shramana Revolution
• Shramana: old-eouig
• Jainism, and Buddhism, appeared sometime between the ninth and sixth centuries BCE
o Later date usually accepted because of Mahavira (Vardhamana Jnatrpura)
o Earlier date common because of Parsavanath (the 23rd Tirthankara)
• Rejected brahminical orthodoxy and its preoccupation with social and cosmic ordering
The Shraaa Reolutio, cot’d
• Thought that people needed salvation from a meaningless cosmos
o The cosmos is a purposeless place of suffering
o Must be transcended
• Moksha (liberation/nirvana)
• Cycles of generation and degeneration
o Predicable patterns in life
o Unending cycle, beginningless
• Mahavira appeared as the final Jina of the current degenerative time period
o Each cycle will have 24 Jinas
The Life of Mahavira in the Kalpa Sutra
• Mahaia’s ith
o Part of the ruling family
o Three names: Vardhamana (devoid of love and hate); Sramana (ascetic);
Venerable Ascetic Mahavira
• Enlightenment
o Kevalin (liberated one)
• Mahaia’s physial death
o Siddha (liberated being), Buddha, Mukta
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Document Summary
Overview: simple message: the path to happiness, truth, and self-realization is the path of restraint. It is fundamentally other, silent tranquility, radiates peace. The life of mahavira in the kalpa sutra: maha(cid:448)i(cid:396)a"s (cid:271)i(cid:396)th, part of the ruling family, three names: vardhamana (devoid of love and hate); sramana (ascetic); Venerable ascetic mahavira: enlightenment, kevalin (liberated one, maha(cid:448)i(cid:396)a"s physi(cid:272)al death, siddha (liberated being), buddha, mukta. The early sangha: four-fold community (sangha, monks, nuns, more nuns than monks, laymen, laywomen, unusual because women were generally seen as objects of desire. The early sangha, co(cid:374)t"d: mahavira died at age 72, attained moksha. Ji(cid:374)a"s o(cid:373)(cid:374)is(cid:272)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:449)he(cid:374) e(cid:373)(cid:271)odied: digambaras jina has no need for food, sleep, etc, svetambaras all embodied have bodily demands. In the 4th century bce, the canon was nearly lost due to famine: the purvas disappeared, but some think parts (drstivada) were preserved in the.
