Jain Science and Spirituality

by Medhavi Jain | 2020 | 61,419 words

This essay studies the elements of Jainism and investigates how Jain science and philosophy can give the world answers to through science and spirituality. Instead of interpreting it as a confined, strict philosophy, it is shown that Jainism represents a path towards self-awakening through self-improvement....

3.2. Benefits of Meditation

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Meditation helps us see and analyse the true essence of things, which is beyond our choices and conditioning.

To move forward onto the path of self-search:

‘The primary condition is a target demeanour of mind, free from a wide range of inclinations, partialities, different preferences. Our emotional frame of mind hues our discernment and misshapes our vision. It doesn't enable us to consider things to be they are. Besides, the qualities we connect to things depend on emotional elements like our preferences. We can't comprehend the truth of things except if we see them with a confiscated personality.’^[1]

It seems difficult to achieve this kind of state of mind but if the quest is real, the seeker achieves what he wishes for.

‘Cognizance, by its very nature, is a seer. In its most perfect structure it needn't bother with a medium. It is just when the mind throws its shadow on it that it needs a mechanism of recognition. Believing is an element of the intellect. The acumen, to utilize a metaphorical language, is a beam exuding from awareness.’^[2]

The artists know that whenever they write, draw or act and so on; it is not intentional but intuitive. So much so that often they get stunned at their own previous works. Their art forms can either be the messages from the pure consciousness or from the universe, where, perhaps, they act as a medium.

What is great about philosophy is that it gives one space to think as one wants, and as much as one wants, so that one can conclude the best. Philosophy cannot be biased, and it is free from the boundaries of any particular religion. Here the seeker is free to meditate and contemplate on every subject, be it words, language or God.

For example,

‘A word, independent from anyone else, has no significance. It is a confuse of letters of sounds. It is through thought that you come to know its significance. Words uncover their implications in thought.’^[3]

And the deeper one goes, the more understanding of the meaning of a particular word one finds.

Often we get the answers of our confusions or queries in the morning time, when we sit alone with a fresh mind; doing nothing, just pondering. Silence provides us solutions.

‘Thinking and contemplation are the most dominant methods for understanding truth. They uncover to us multitudinous privileged insights of nature and human life.’^[4]

Meditation gets us introduced to an inner self, that is lying hidden in all of us. That, once tapped, can transform our lives. We start to see, understand and hear things that were inaccessible till now.

‘The dissemination of blood likewise delivers subtle sound. In the event that you strive by fixation, you can hear these subtle sounds.’^[5]

The reason behind tapping into one’s spiritual energy is fair enough to do so.

How beautifully the great men must have recognised their individualities and how they must have shown courage to proceed on the path which they knew right.

Mahavira said,

‘The entire world swims with the current, it is extremely hard to swim against the current. One who can do so can cross the waterway of Sansara.’^[6]

It takes a lot of courage because it can be easily seen that in the whole world there are quite less people who think honestly without any conditioning of mind borrowed by the society.

The interesting thing about most of the modern day preachers, irrespective of which religion they belong to, is that they criticise all others.

It is surprising indeed that why no one tells his/her disciples to peep in? Whereas,

‘sadhana lies in a total elimination of denial of others. It means self-exploration, selfexamination and self-reorientation. It is self-transformation.’^[7]

Denial of others in terms of not blaming them for any miss happening, and not in a sense to expense one’s energy in trying to impose on them what one think is right.

‘The preeminent reason for Sadhana is to separate the spirit from a wide range of articles. It doesn't go for obtaining heavenly or phenomenal forces. It just goes for self-cleansing.’^[8]

Self-improvement is the only aim of being spiritual and not others’ purification.

The sole intent of progressing onto the path of meditation is to recognise one’s soul in its purest form, that is all knowledgeable, blissful and has infinite capabilities. We need to understand that it is an intrinsic journey where no one is there to judge or analyse one, but oneself.

The higher state of meditation is thoughtless meditation when even thoughts have disappeared.

‘Thoughtless meditation means planting the psyche into its regular state or into unadulterated awareness. It means clear and clean information.’^[9]

Nothing but pure natural knowledge.

One may wonder about what can be the role of chanting mantras, or performing pooja, in meditation, and if there is no God, why do we need an idol at all as we are not supposed to please someone through our actions?

‘Mantras, telling of beads, control of breathing and concentration of mind on a solitary idea point are the executes with which the perspectives are invalidated and the act of contemplation is reinforced. They are not intuitive exercises. They must be developed by effort.’^[10]

A state when no object is required to meditate upon, is higher and is, the best. But to reach that state a seeker needs to learn to focus; for which mantra chanting can be helpful.

Often when one sits peacefully alone in contemplation with a fresher mind, one finds solutions to one’s daily life’s problems or answers to one’s long kept queries. Sometimes an idea presents itself in the mind of the ponderer like a spark, clearing the dust on a particular situation.