1. Blissfulness; the joy of being alive;
the glossiness of a miseryless world; that, as daylight is always present
in the universe, as a permanent reality, so is bliss. Forgetting this is
misery; sunlight never need be out of the mind; so with bliss, the feeling
of glorious joy; revealing in life; immortality; you will hurt none, you
know their joy in living, their love of life.
2. Contemplate truthfulness. the truth is
there; you have but to know it, not to manufacture. There is no effort, it
is easy. Let it be asserted, not covered up.
3. Contemplate honesty. It is the opposite
of stealing. Do the obvious thing, don't shirk.
4. Contemplate contentedness. Limit the
burden of material possessions; what will content us? Will one million
pounds make us consent? Do we want ten, like Mr. Morrison, of Reading,
fifty like Mr. Harriman, of America, a hundred million, like Mr.
Rockfeller, of America, to make us content? How much, after all, do we
really require, and will we trouble to use and to guard?
These five things are spiritual qualities,
the inherent natures of the soul. They are the first five special rules or
vows which are taken in part by the layman, and in a literal way by the
monk, as already detailed.
The next step in the process may be to
meditate upon purity of body, by washing, and by feeding it with pure
foods. Meat and alcohol should be avoided, also vegetables that get no
sun, like those growing underground. All foods which irritate or dull
should avoided.
Meditate on purity of mind, in four
ways:
1. Love; an attitude
which is bigger than acquaintance, higher than something done for a
friend, you do something for the person who is a friend, and perhaps if he
never does anything for you in return, you wonder why, and may be
disappointed. But when love is the motive, you love to do the thing for
the person, and it is a pleasure, and you do not expect any return, and so
are not disappointed if there is none.
2. Love towards the
suffering will be in the form of compassion, pity, and active relief, when
possible.
3. Love towards the happy
will be in the form of rejoicing, or gladness, an absence of envy or
jealousy.
4. Love towards the
criminal or cruel person means an absence of revengeful feeling; it may be
a sort of indifference, neither hatred nor approval. Or, in a higher form,
love towards the cruel will take the form of pity. If you see a lame dog,
perhaps diseased, you are not angry with the dog, you pity it; it is
suffering. Thus you are pitying the criminal in his reaping; and so, if
you see a person beating a horse or doing any cruel thing, you can pity
him for the future suffering which he is generating. You can pity the
lame, diseased dog in his suffering, which is his reaping of past criminal
acts; why not pity the being in his causing acts as a criminal? Also, a
cruel person, or an immoral person, or a drunkard, or a liar, is person
with a diseased mind; and we should pity mental disease equally with
bodily disease.
The next step in the process may be to
meditate on Adeptship, that is, those in whom the eighteen faults,
previously mentioned, are absent, and on perfection, or those who have
already accomplished their complete development and are living a right
life: "I shall be entirely satisfied when I reach Masterhood."
The idea is that, by this process,
practiced, if possible, daily for some forty-five or fifty minutes without
interruption, resulting in equanimity, we get illumination or
self-realization.
As a help to becoming what we ought to be,
or, at any rate, to prevent us from acquiring unnatural energies or
characteristics, the layman may use the following twelve reflections (anupreksa).
1. There is nothing
unchangeable in this world; everything is transient or subject to
alteration. We should not, therefore, attach too much importance to it,
and should regard it as transitory (anitya).
2. In this world of
misery, disease, old age, and death, there is no other protection, refuge,
or help than our own practice of the truth. Others are powerless; as we
sow, so we reap (asarana).
3. This continual cycle
of births and deaths as man, as animal, as angel, as denizen of hell,
although it has been going on for countless ages, is not yet ended; and
therefore we should now make some efforts to free ourselves from them,
with the suffering, old age etc., which they entail (samsara).
4. To think, I enter this
world by myself, I go out of it by myself, I have to do my own work of
self-moral improvement, and myself to suffer my own pains (ekatva).
5. All the things of the
world are separate from me, are not me, the body included, which is only
by delusion called oneself (anyatva).
6. The body is full of
dirty things, and the soul is thus in contact with dirty things in
embodied life (asucitva).
7. That it is the
continual attraction (inflow) of new foreign matters due to delusion, want
of self-control, carelessness, etc., which is the origination of our pains
and miseries (asrava).
8. That this continual
inflow should be stopped by adopting the necessary means, such as
controlling the senses and the mind, acquiring knowledge, and practicing
concentration (samvara).
9. That means should be
taken to remove or work out those unnatural foreign characteristics
(unkindness, weakness, ignorance, misery, etc.) which are in us, that the
observance of the rules of conduct becomes the cause of the removal of
foreign energies, only when it is actuated by right conviction (nirjara).
10. Thinking of the five
real substances in the universe, that they were not created, but are
permanent; and what they are. Also reflecting on the fundamental truths of
the relation between soul and matter (loka).
11. Thinking how difficult
it is to get or acquire right knowledge, right convictions and right
conduct, so that these may remain permanent (bodhidurlabhatva).
12. That these three
qualities-right knowledge, belief, and conduct- are the source of
happiness (dharmasvakhyatanucintana).
The following is a list of twenty-one
qualities, a majority of which must, according to Jainism, be possessed
before a person is ready to undertake the higher religious life:
1. He must be earnest,
powerful enough to do good to others and to himself, a careful observer,
and one who puts mature consideration into actions. One who is
superficial, cannot lead the higher religious life (aksudra).
2. He must be of sound
body, his hearing, sight, and other senses must be good, and he must be
strong (rupavan).
3. Pleasing by nature; by
his very appearance trusted; not sinful by habits that have become second
nature; very easily served (prakrti soma).
4. Popular; charitable;
well-behaved; of good moral character (lokapriya).
5. Not cruel (akrura).
6. Cautious.
7. Honest; does not
practice religion for show, but from his heart (astha).
8. Civil; he will help
others in their meritorious work, even at the sacrifice of less important
business of his own (su-daksinya).
9. He will not do even a
small act that is bad, and will live up to his principles, even to death (lajjalu).
10. He will be
compassionate and sympathetic (dayalu).
11. Just, impartial. Being
able to discriminate correctly between right and wrong, he will not make
mistakes of judgment as to conduct, and will test religious beliefs on
their merits only , asking the true qualities of the soul and disarming
what is extraneous to his permanent self (madhyastha saumya drstivan).
12. He will see the good
in others, will try to gain virtues, and avoid sullying any he may
actually have. By reiterating the vices or faults of others, no good
comes, and hatred is only increased (gunagrahi).
13. Does not engage in bad
talks, but only good ones, thinking first and speaking after. Talk that
excites the passions is bad (satkatha).
14. Getting himself
surrounded by virtuous, friendly and well behaved relations,
acquaintances, and attendants, who will encourage him in his right life (supasayula).
15. Having foresight. He
only takes up work that tells, where the result is great in proportion to
the effort; and only work that is approved by good men (dirghadarsi).
16. Having impartiality
and able to judge and differentiate minutely right from wrong in all its
details and ramifications (visesajna).
17. Following in the
footsteps of really great men (vrddhanuga); that is, men of mature
understanding, who do not act wrongly, and are self-controlled; who have
tested right principles and gained knowledge by their practice; men who
are strong-willed enough to resist the sense-pleasures even of youth (vrddhanuga).
18. Polite, civil (vinayi).
19. Grateful, anxious to
make use of opportunities to repay kindness; and the opinion of Jainism is
that there is not better way of repaying obligations than by steadying a
man and leading him into a right life (krtajna).
20. Bent upon the good of
other, without expecting any return, the best good being to bring them to
a right faith, as just mentioned above (parahita-nirata).
21. Having a quick grasp,
intelligent, able to learn without much trouble to himself or his teacher
(labdha-laksya).
