Essence of Ambrosia
Essence of Ambrosia

Author: Taranatha

Publisher: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 8186470379

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Essence of Ambrosia is a guide to Buddhist meditation, composed by the prolific and eclectic Tibetan scholar and practitioner Taranatha (1575-1634). Following the lead of Atisha, Taranatha expounds a graduated approach (known as lam rim) to cognitive and meditative development designed to address the needs of three types of person: the person of lesser, average and greater capacity. Taranatha's innovative contribution to this genre is to instruct the student in "contemplation sessions", that specifically guide a beginning Buddhist practitioner through the traditional practices of meditation, beginning with devotional reflection up to the apex of Buddhist meditation, insight (vipassana) meditation. The result is a remarkably accessible and concise insider's guide to the Mahayana Buddhist path.

Ācārya Kundakunda’s Bārasa Aņuvekkhā – The Twelve Contemplations आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित बारस अणुवेक्खा (द्वादश अनुप्रेक्षा, बारह भावना)
Ācārya Kundakunda’s Bārasa Aņuvekkhā – The Twelve Contemplations आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित बारस अणुवेक्खा (द्वादश अनुप्रेक्षा, बारह भावना)

Author: Vijay K. Jain

Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Published: 2021-12-11

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9355661347

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Bārasa Aņuvekkhā – ‘The Twelve Contemplations’ – of Ācārya Kundakunda (circa 1st century BC) contains 91 verses (gāthā). ‘Aņuvekkhā’, ‘aņupekkhā’, ‘anuprekşā’, and ‘bhāvanā’ are synonyms; these terms are used in Prākrit, Apabhramśa, Sanskrit and Hindi languages, respectively. Contemplation means ‘meditating on the nature of the Reality’. The uniqueness of Ācārya Kundakunda’s exposition is that he has described each contemplation both from the empirical (vyavahāra) as well as the transcendental (niścaya) points-of-view (naya). These contemplations help a man practise moral virtues, like forbearance (kşamā), and lead to highly effective stoppage (samvara) of karmas. He who does contemplation observes properly the moral virtues and also endures the afflictions.

Jaina Studies
Jaina Studies

Author: Colette Caillat

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9788120832473

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Interest for Jain studies has increased considerably in the last decades. Scholars will be thankful to the organizers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference who, for the first time in such a conference, planned a special panel on this field. The ten papers collected in this volume show the importance, abundance and variety of topics that can be considered. Philological analysis still proves useful, whether it concentrates on one particular work or on clusters of texts. A study of the strategy of narrative and predication needs a historical approach, kavya literature lends itself to renewed and indepth interpretations. Finally the reader will observe the constant renewal of Jainism, as some new literary genre or a new sect are seen to have gained momentum in modern times.

Classical Indian Ethical Thought
Classical Indian Ethical Thought

Author: Kedar Nath Tiwari

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9788120816084

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The book is a philosophical treatise on the Hindu, Bauddha and Jaina morals meant for the University students of Indian Ethics as well as for the general readers interested in the subject. Books on the subject are generally written in a historical perspective. On the contrary, the present work is philosophical and critical which takes full cognisance of the recent developments in Western ethical thought and its likely impact on the understanding of the traditional Indian ethics. Attempt has been made to understand the subject in the light of certain well-knit conceptual frames developed in the West in the field of ethics. In course of doing this, certain reconstructions have also been made, but it has always been kept in mind that the reconstructions do not become jejune to the natural spirit of Indian thought.

Ācārya Kundakunda’s Pravacanasāra – Essence of the Doctrine आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित "प्रवचनसार"
Ācārya Kundakunda’s Pravacanasāra – Essence of the Doctrine आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित

Author: Vijay K. Jain

Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 8193272617

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Ācārya Kundakunda’s (circa 1st century BCE) Pravacanasāra is among the most popular Jaina Scriptures that are studied with great reverence by the ascetics as well as the laymen. Consciousness manifests in form of cognition (upayoga) – pure-cognition (śuddhopayoga), auspicious-cognition (śubhopayoga) and inauspicious-cognition (aśubhopayoga). Pure-cognition represents conduct without-attachment (vītarāga cāritra). Perfect knowledge or omniscience (kevalajñāna) is the fruit of pure-cognition (śuddhopayoga). The soul engaged in pure-cognition (śuddhopayoga) enjoys supreme happiness engendered by the soul itself; this happiness is beyond the five senses – atīndriya – unparalleled, infinite, and imperishable. Omniscience (kevalajñāna) is real happiness; there is no difference between knowledge and happiness. Delusion (moha), the contrary and ignorant view of the soul about substances, is the cause of misery. The soul with attachment (rāga) toward the external objects makes bonds with karmas and the soul without attachment toward the external objects frees itself from the bonds of karmas. The stainless soul knows the reality of substances, renounces external and internal attachments (parigraha) and does not indulge in the objects-of-the-senses.

From IIM-Ahmedabad To Happiness
From IIM-Ahmedabad To Happiness

Author: Vijay K. Jain

Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Published: 2006-06-30

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 8190363905

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This book is not about academics, not even about success; it is about happiness which we all, in the ultimate analysis, are striving for. The book is for those who have achieved success in their worldly affairs but hold that their role in life is much bigger than just pushing figures, making strategies, and managing men. Happiness, the book suggests, resides not in any outside object, but must spring up from within. Man's search for happiness is a search for a lost or hidden article, not of anything new. Each one of us has the power to regain the lost health, vitality and happiness, provided one develops the right faith, attains knowledge and then follows the right path.

Ācārya Umāsvāmī’s Tattvārthasūtra – With Explanation in English from Ācārya Pūjyapāda’s Sarvārthasiddhi
Ācārya Umāsvāmī’s Tattvārthasūtra – With Explanation in English from Ācārya Pūjyapāda’s Sarvārthasiddhi

Author: Vijay K. Jain

Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Published: 2018-11-07

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 8193272625

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Ācārya Umāsvāmī’s (circa 1st century CE) Tattvārthasūtra (spelled commonly as Tattvarthsutra or Tattvarthasutra), also known as Mokşaśāstra, is the most widely read Jaina Scripture. It expounds the Jaina Doctrine, the nature of the Reality, in form of aphorisms (sūtra), in Sanskrit. Brief and to-the-point, Tattvārthasūtra delineates beautifully the essentials of all objects-of-knowledge (jñeya). Sarvārthasiddhi by Ācārya Pūjyapāda (circa 5th century CE) is the first and foremost extant commentary on Tattvārthasūtra. Sarvārthasiddhi is an exposition of the reality – the true nature of substances, soul and non-soul – the knowledge of which equips one to tread the path to liberation, as expounded in Tattvārthasūtra. There is beginningless intermingling of the soul (jīva) and the non-soul (ajīva) karmic matter. Our activities (yoga) are responsible for the influx (āsrava) of the karmic matter into the soul. Actuated by passions (kaşāya) the soul takes in particles of the karmic matter; this is bondage (bandha). Obstructing fresh inflow of the karmic matter into the soul – samvara – and its subsequent separation or falling off from the soul – nirjarā – are two important steps in attaining the infallible, utterly pristine, sense-independent and infinitely blissful state of the soul, called liberation (mokşa).

Ācārya Māņikyanandi’s Parīkşāmukha Sūtra – आचार्य माणिक्यनन्दि विरचित परीक्षामुख सूत्र
Ācārya Māņikyanandi’s Parīkşāmukha Sūtra – आचार्य माणिक्यनन्दि विरचित परीक्षामुख सूत्र

Author: Vijay K. Jain

Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Published: 2021-04-18

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 8193272692

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The science-of-thought (Nyāya) has always been an integral part of the four constituents (anuyoga) – prathamānuyoga, karuņānuyoga, caraņānuyoga, and dravyānuyoga – of the Jaina Scripture. Through Parīkşāmukha Sūtra (spelled commonly as Parikshamukha Sutra), Ācārya Māņikyanandi (circa 7th-8th century A.D.) churned the nectar of the science-of-thought (Nyāya) from the ocean of the words of the master-composers like Ācārya Samantabhadra and Bhaţţa Akalańka Deva. The valid-knowledge (pramāņa) ascertains the true nature of objects while the fallacious-knowledge (pramāņābhāsa) does the opposite. Parīkşāmukha Sūtra characterizes, as per the earlier authoritative expositions and in brief, both these (pramāņa and pramāņābhāsa) for the benefit of the uninitiated learners. It is an essential canonical text that every knowledge-seeking householder and ascetic must try to master.