11.2. Śukla-Dhyāna

[Full title: The Two Meditations: Liberating Psychological States (2) Śukla-Dhyāna]

Pure or white meditation is the means for the attainment of liberation. The four varieties of white meditation are:^[1]

(1) Multiple contemplation, (pṛthaktva-vitarka-savicāra);
(2) Unitary contemplation, (aikatva-vitarka-nirvicāra);
(3) Subtle infallible physical activity (sūkṣma-kriyā-pratipāti); and
(4) Irreversible stillness of the soul (vyuparata-kriyā-anivarti).

The first two varieties of pure meditation are said to be attainable only through a knowledge of purvas.^[2] However, this early scriptural literature is no longer extant. It is stated in the Tattvārtha-sūtra that these two are a pre-condition of śukla-dhyāna (Tattvārtha-sūtra₁, 9.40).^[3] Thus, with the purvas lost, nobody is able to attain this state. For this reason, from between 150 and 350 CE, pure meditation was considered no longer achievable in this world, a point raised by Bronkhorst (1993: 153). According to the Jaina tradition, Jambusvāmī was the last person who attained liberation (Dharmasāgaragaṇi, 1933: 42) and Bhadrabāhu was the last knower of all the 14 pūrva scriptures (śruta-kevalin) (Saṅghamitrā, 2001: 81).

According to the Jaina time cycle there came about a gradual deterioration in the knowledge of the purvās, attainment of liberation, and pure meditation so that ultimately pure meditation was no longer attainable in this world. Although, this problem was considered an unavoidable consequence of the time-cycle, it was solved through Jaina cosmography. Places like Mahāvideha are considered unaffected by the cycle of time (kālacakra). Mahāvideha is divided into thirty-two regions, which are realms of action (karma-bhūmi). In these thirty-two karma-bhūmi regions, conditions are always suitable for tīrthaṅkaras to be born, and liberation is always possible for a human born there. Therefore, pure meditation is said to be prevalent in these realms (Bhagavatī-sūtra, 20.8). Those who are born in these regions can purify themselves through the performance of dharmadhyāna which is attainable there. Purification in our realm of birth plausibly leads towards Mahāvideha in one’s next birth where liberation is available. Throughout the canonical period, meditation appeared to be a part of ascetic practice or the practice of austerities (tapas). However, during the classical period, for the first time, Umāsvāti described meditation in a new way: “Concentration of thought on a single object by a person with good bone-joints is meditation which lasts an intra-hour (ā-muhūrta)”.^[4] The duration of practice here is less than forty-eight minutes (_ā-_muhūrta) with one-pointed concentration on a single object. Ohira remarks that during the canonical period one can see a “dependent position of dhyāna to tapas” but “Umāsvāti presented it independently and added new features which were previously unknown, i.e. the definition of dhyāna and the dhyātā’s (meditator’s) gradation in the scheme of the guṇasthāna. He did it in order to discriminate the Jaina concept of dhyāna from that maintained by the other systems, and in so doing he introduced these above mentioned new features into the Jaina system” (Ohira 1982: 89). This will be discussed below.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Tattvārtha-sūtra₁, 9.42 pṛthaktvai-katvavitarka-sūkṣmakriyāpratipāti-vyuparatakriyānivartīni.

[2]:

Pūravas are the collection of fourteen ancient texts in Jaina canonical literature (āgama). There are numerous ways to define the term ‘pūrva’. Traditionally it means that the chief disciples (gaṇadhara) of each tīrthaṅkara compose these texts on the basis of knowledge which they gained from tīrthaṅkaras. Historically, scholars considered that these texts are teachings of the 23^rd tīrthaṅkara, Pārśvanātha. Ācārya Bhadrabāhu (I) was the last person who knew all fourteen pūrvas; this notion is accepted in both the Śvetāmbara and Digaṃbara traditions and Vajrasvāmī was the last pūrvadhara who had the knowledge of one pūrva (Wiley, 2004: 176).

[3]:

Tattvārtha-sūtra₁, 9.40 pūrvavidaḥ.

[4]:

Tattvārtha-sūtra, 9.27. uttamsaṃhananasyaikāgra-cintānirodho dhyānam. Tattvārtha-sūtra, 9.28. ā muhūrtāt.