Preksha meditation: History and Methods
by Samani Pratibha Pragya | 2016 | 111,074 words
This page relates ‘Jayacarya’s Meditation’ 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.
Go directly to: Footnotes.
3. Jayācārya’s Meditation
Hemarāja was Jayācārya’s instructor in religious science (vidyā-guru).[1] After initiation, Jayācārya spent twelve years[2] with Hemarāja[3] to acquire knowledge of the āgamas and different arts, although there is no reference or record of meditational training received by Jayācārya (Buddhamala 1991: 341). Ācārya Maghavā (1881–1892), the fifth ācārya of the Terāpantha sect, wrote quite specifically in Jaya-sujaśa, a biography of Jayācārya (1886) that he had learnt meditation from Muni Hemarāja, that he was well versed in yoga[4] (joga-śāstra) and that he used to practise meditation for long periods of time. Mahāprajña states that Jayācārya’s life had been highly influenced by Hemarāja.
Hence, possibly, meditational sprouting in Jayācārya must be form Hemarāja (Mahāprajña, 1981: 25). The text on the twenty-four songs about the tīrthaṅkara titled Caubisī[5] (1857) by Jayācārya has many references to the meditative practices of the tīrthaṅkarās, which provides further evidence that Jayācārya had an in-depth knowledge of these meditative practices (Tulasī and Mahāprajña, 1997: 33–5).
Furthermore, the meditation practice of Jayācārya is briefly mentioned in JayaJaya Jayamahārāja by different sources. Dharmacanda, a lay follower shares his grandfather’s documented write-up in a logbook (bahī), who used to do be a close devotee of Jayācārya, he spent his pauṣadha[6] nights awake, alert and witnessed his meditative practices as follows:
He was an adept in trance-meditation (yoga-samādhi). His location of trance (samādhi) was entrusted in jyoti-kendra[7] and his location of one-pointedconcentration (dhāraṇā) was left leg toe. He was able to meditate for three hours at a stretch. His yogic potential was able to unveil the inner secrets. Reverent would experience very strange experiences in his psychic-center-consciousness (cakracetanā)…The method to visualise the paranormal powers was naturally availed to him (Sāgara 2009:170).
The meaning of the phrase ‘location of samādhi and dhāraṇa’ is difficult for us to understand nor do we know the exact usage of the terms jyoti-kendra and cakra-cetanā in the context of both Jayācārya’s meditative practices and modern practices. It does however, reveal his practice of long sessions of meditation. Furthermore, the mention of cakras and jyoti-kendra indicate that the practices are more detailed than the available sources reveal.
As a practising meditator, Jayācārya composed two short prose texts on meditation, Baḍā-dhyāna (long meditation) and Choṭā-dhyāna (short meditation), as well as Dhyāna-vidhi (a song about procedures of meditation). These two prose pieces documented meditational techniques in the Terāpantha tradition for the first time. These texts are written in the Māravāḍī dialect, though their precise date and place of composition are unknown. I will now explore the meditational texts of Jayācārya, and show how these contributed towards the genesis of prekṣā-dhyāna.
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
[3]:
Navaratnamala, 2003a: 187.
[4]:
[5]:
Caubisī means one which has twenty-four in it. Here there are twenty-four songs.
[6]:
[7]:
The jyoti-kendra here is between the eyebrows as could be found in Dhyāna-vidhi of Jayācārya, (n.d./1997c: 95) unlike that of prekṣā which is the center of forehead.