Preksha meditation: History and Methods
by Samani Pratibha Pragya | 2016 | 111,074 words
This page relates ‘Dhyana and Gunasthana’ of study dealing with Preksha-Dhyana: a meditation technique created by Acharya Shri Mahapragya (Acarya Mahaprajna) in the late twentieth century. It synthesizes ancient Jain ascetic methods, ritualistic practices, and modern scientific insights, appealing to a global audience. The thesis explores its historical context, theoretical foundations, and the rise of contemporary Jain meditation systems.
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11.3. Dhyāna and Guṇasthāna
[Full title: The Two Meditations: Liberating Psychological States (3) Dhyāna and Guṇasthāna]
Umāsvāti’s codification of meditation in terms of the fourteen stages of spiritual development (guṇasthāna) became a way of classifying the development of meditation according to the stages of karmic purification. In this schema, as one ascends towards the higher stages of the guṇasthāna, more and more karma is separated from the soul and annihilated. Meditation is considered to be a means for advancement on the path to purification through the categories of the guṇasthāna ladder towards salvation. Some of the guṇasthānas are mentioned in canonical literature, but a full list of all fourteen, described as such, is not found in the early āgamas. Only once, under the synonym jīvasthāna are the fourteen stages listed in the Samavāyāṅga-sūtra.[1] The table below depicts the fourteen stages of purification, as presented in the Tattvārtha-sūtra.
TABLE 2 - Dhyānas in Guṇasthāna Alignment
| 1 | ārtta-dhyāna | From first to sixth guṇasthānas[2] 1. mithyādṛṣṭi (deluded world-view) 2. sāsvādana-samyagdṛṣṭi (lingering enlightened world-view) 3. samyag-mithyādṛṣṭi (enlightened world-view) 4. avirati-samyagdṛṣṭi (combination of first and third stage) 5. deśavirata-samyagdṛṣṭi (enlightened world-view without any sort of self restraint) 6. pramatta-saṃyata (enlightened world-view with complete self restraint but with laxity) |
| 2 | raudra-dhyāna | From first to fifth guṇasthānas[3] 1. mithyādṛṣṭi 2. sāsvādana-samyagdṛṣṭi 3. samyag-mithyādṛṣṭi 4. avirati-samyagdṛṣṭi 5. deśavirata samyagdṛṣṭi |
| 3 | dharmya-dhyāna | Seventh[4], eleventh and twelfth[5] guṇasthānas 1. apramatta-saṃyat (complete self restraint free of laxity) 2. upaśānta-kaṣāya-vītarāga (complete self-restraint with gross passions attended by various novel experiences.) 3. kṣīṇa-kaṣāya-vītarāga (complete self-restraint with gross passions and similar but progressively purer experiences) |
| 4. | Śukla-dhyāna (first 2) 1. pṛthaktva-vitarka-savicāra 2. aikatva-vitarkanirvicāra |
Eleventh and twelfth guṇasthāna[6] 1. upaśānta kaṣāya vītarāg 2. kṣīṇa kaṣāya vītarāga |
| Śukla dhyāna (last 2) 3. sūkṣmakriyāpratipāti 4. vyuparatakriyānivarti |
Thirteenth and fourteenth guṇasthānas[7] 1. sayoga kevala (omniscience accompanied by mental, verbal and physical activity) 2. ayoga kevala (omniscience with no activity) |
Umāsvāti made an effort to embed the four types of meditation (described in Uttarādhyayana-sūtra, Daśavaikālika-sūtra, Ṭhāṇa, Tattvārtha-sūtra) into the ladder of spiritual progress, which leads towards the ultimate goal of Jaina soteriology. People in the first stage of negative meditation (ārtta-dhyāna) are placed at the lower spiritual stages of non-abstinence (avirata), partial abstinence (deśavirata) and self-restraint with laxity (pramatta-saṃyata). People who are at the lower spiritual stages of non-abstinence and partial abstinence are subject to the second negative meditation (raudra-dhyāna). This state of concentration arises from the perpetration of violence, falsehood, theft and the preservation of one’s possessions. The first positive meditation (dharmya-dhyāna) can be attained only by those who are at the spiritual stage of complete self-restraint and free from laxity. This meditative state investigates the essence of the scriptural commandments, the nature of physical and mental suffering, the effects of karma and the shape of the universe. These are the main contents of dharmya analytic meditation, which focuses more on knowledge and less on meditation. Umāsvāti describes this state of the seventh guṇasthāna and how it enhances its domain as entry into either complete self-restraint with suppression (upaśānta-kaṣāya-vītarāga) or complete self-restraint with elimination (of the four passions) (kṣīṇa-kaṣāya-vītarāga). The meditator concentrates on the objects of dharmya-dhyāna and finally moves towards the first two varieties of pure meditation. At this stage, Umāsvāti does not mention the names of the guṇasthāna but the four varieties of pure meditation are self-explanatory as they are accompanied by the pure activities of body, speech, and mind (sayogi-kevala), and finally the cessation of all activity (ayogi-kevala). Here the names of thirteenth and fourteenth guṇasthānas directly point to the omniscient one (kevali).
The Uttarādhyayana-sūtra1 (29.56–58) passage on kāya-samāhāraṇa (calming/stilling the body) states that disciplining the body (kāya-yoga) alone leads one to mokṣa, because this disciplines or stills one’s mental and vocal activities as well. The usual order of this threefold yoga is thus kāya-vāṅ-mana which emphasizes that the body must first be disciplined and stilled, then speech, and finally the mind. Umāsvāti alters this order to mano-vāk-kāya Tattvārtha-sūtra1 (6.1) which emphasizes that the mind that must first be stilled as this stills both speech and the body. According to Umāsvāti, a sayoga-kevali performs the third, penultimate stage of śukla-dhyāna, immediately preceding liberation, by bringing the subtle activities of mind and speech to cessation. This requires the performance of samudghāta, the shedding of all karmas by expansion of the soul.[8]
The definition of dhyāna offered in Tattvārtha-sūtra1 (9.27–28) contains three aspects, a definition of the meditator (dhyātā), as one who meets the physical prerequisite of having excellent bodily joints (saṃhanana), the definition of dhyāna and the duration of dhyāna, must be primarily formulated in view of the mokṣa-mārga. Here, Umāsvāti brings in all the four types of dhyāna found in the canon, perhaps in order to distinguish the Jaina concept of dhyāna from that of other traditions. This leads to ambiguity by leaving an impression that the definition referred to here is applicable to all the types of dhyāna as was previously understood by the tradition, and continued to be in later expositions of dhyāna. Umāsvāti may have desired to extend this blanket definition to all the four types of meditation because ‘ekāgra-cintā’ undoubtedly also applies to the ārtta and raudradhyānas. Even if we exclude these two lower types from this definition of dhyāna, the provisions of uttama-saṃhanana (which certainly is too narrow to be applied to the two lower types) is not at all narrow when applied to the class of dharmya-dhyāna. This led the Digambara commentator Pūjyapāda to expand its content up to the division of joints. Neither does Umāsvāti lucidly express the idea that ‘ekāgra-cintā’ is applicable to those in chadmastha and kāya-nirodha, which is used for kevalis, as these are aphorisam compsed in one compound with a singular ending. This obscure expression invited misunderstanding which is apparent in the commentaries on the Tattvārtha-sūtra in both the Śvetāmbara and Digambara traditions. These unhappy points require improvement and became the task of successors, as Ohira (1982: 92–93) points out.
Umāsvāti’s Tattvārtha-sūtra shares with late-canonical texts the set pattern of four dhyānas, later omitting the first two dhyānas in exactly the same manner as the Uttarādhyayana-sūtra Many canonical elements envisaged in the later development, as building blocks of the Tattvārtha-sūtra, can be seen in Ohira’s analysis of Tattvārtha-sūtra.
Time affects tradition, and Jaina meditation is no exception. During the early canonical age the sole aim of meditation was the termination of karmic bondage by physical mortification and the attainment of liberation. During the late canonical age, meditation was divided into a four-fold system. Of these, usually the two-fold (dharmya and śukla) meditation is accepted as useful for the achievement of liberation. The classical age was a period of systematisation of meditation, whereas the medieval age includes many aspects such as adaptability, assimilation from other traditions, and a new, distinctly Jaina style of meditation developed by Haribhadra and Hemacandra. Dundas makes the same point, i.e. that Jainism never “fully developed a culture of true meditative contemplation” and concludes that later Jaina writers discussed the subject more out of “theoretical interest” (Dundas, 1992:143–4).
From the 8th c. CE to the 12th c. CE, a new stage of Jaina meditation emerged. During this period many Jaina ācāryas composed separate books on yoga. Among them, the Śvetāmbara ācāryas Haribhadra (8th c. CE), Hemacandra (12th c. CE) and the Digambara ācāryas Śubhacandra (10th c. CE) and Rāmasena (10th c. CE) are the most prominent.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Samavāyāṅga-sūtra, 14.5. kammavisohimaggaṇaṃ paḍucca cauddasa jīvaṭṭhāṇā paṇṇattā, taṃ jahā-micchadiṭṭhī, sāsāyaṇasammadiṭṭhī, sammāmicchadiṭṭhī, avirayasammadiṭṭhī, virayāvirae, pamattasaṃjae, appamattasaṃjae, niyaṭṭivāyare, aniyaṭṭivāyare, suhumasamparāe-uvasamae vā khavae vā, uvasaṃtamohe, khīṇamohe, sajogī kevalī, ajogī kevalī.
[2]:
Tattvārtha-sūtra1, 9.35 tad avirata-deśavirata-pramattasaṃyataānāṃ.
[5]:
Tattvārtha-sūtra1, 9.38 upaśānta-kṣīṇakaṣāyayoś ca.
[6]:
Tattvārtha-sūtra1, 9.39 śukle cādye.
[7]:
Tattvārtha-sūtra1, 9.41 pare kevalinaḥ.
[8]:
Samudghāta, (Jaina-siddhānta-dīpikā, 7.29) Expansion of soul-units (ātmā-pradeśas) outside the body-projection, in the diverse directions of the indivisible units (pradeśas) of the soul, completely engrossed in the experience of distress and the like, either automatically or brought about by an effort (of the soul) (tr. Satkari Mookerjee).