page_title: Jain meditation
section_title: Canonical
hierarchical_section_title: Jain meditation / Ancient history / Canonical
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of Acharya Umaswami, first century Digambara monk, author of the major Jain text, Tattvārthsūtra. हिन्दी: उमास्वामी आचार्यजी की प्रतिमा
context_page_description: Jain meditation has been the central practice of spirituality in Jainism along with the Three Jewels. Jainism holds that emancipation can only be achieved through meditation or Shukla Dhyana. According to Sagarmal Jain, it aims to reach and remain in a state of "pure-self awareness or knowership." Meditation is also seen as realizing the self, taking the soul to complete freedom, beyond any craving, aversion and/or attachment. The practitioner strives to be just a knower-seer. Jain meditation can be broadly categorized to the auspicious and inauspicious. The 20th century saw the development and spread of new modernist forms of Jain Dhyana, mainly by monks and laypersons of Śvētāmbara Jainism.
  Jain meditation is also referred as Sāmāyika. A form of this which includes a strong component of scripture study is mainly promoted by the more conservative Digambara tradition of Jainism. The word Sāmāyika means being in the moment of continuous real-time.
context_section_description: In this era, the Jain canon was recorded and Jain philosophy systematized. It is clear that Jain meditation and samadhi continued to evolve and to be practiced after the death of Mahavira by figures such as Acharya Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of Maurya Empire who became a Jain monk in old age and a student of Bhadrabahu. It describes Mahavira as practicing intense austerities, fasts (most commonly three days long, as extreme as six months of fasting) and meditations. In one instance he practiced standing meditation for sixteen days and nights. He did this by facing each of the four directions for a period of time, and then turning to face the intermediate directions as well as above and below.
  This period also sees the elucidation of the practice of contemplation (anuprekṣā) by Kundakunda's Vārassa-aṇuvekkhā or “Twelve Contemplations” (c. 1st century BCE to 1st century CE). These twelve forms of reflection (bhāvanā) aid in the stopping of the influx of karmas that extend transmigration. These twelve reflections are:
  anitya bhāvanā – the transitoriness of the world;
  aśaraņa bhāvanā – the helplessness of the soul.
  saṃsāra – the pain and suffering implied in transmigration;
  aikatva bhāvanā – the inability of another to share one’s suffering and sorrow;
  anyatva bhāvanā – the distinctiveness between the body and the soul;
  aśuci bhāvanā – the filthiness of the body;
  āsrava bhāvanā – influx of karmic matter;
  saṃvara bhāvanā – stoppage of karmic matter;
  nirjarā bhāvanā – gradual shedding of karmic matter;
  loka bhāvanā – the form and divisions of the universe and the nature of the conditions prevailing in the different regions – heavens, hells, and the like;
  bodhidurlabha bhāvanā – the extreme difficulty in obtaining human birth and, subsequently, in attaining true faith; and
  dharma bhāvanā – the truth promulgated by Lord Jina.
  In his Niyamasara, Acarya Kundakunda, also describes yoga bhakti—devotion to the path to liberation—as the highest form of devotion.
  The Sthananga Sutra (c. 2nd century BCE) gives a summary of four main types of meditation (dhyana) or concentrated thought. The first two are mental or psychological states in which a person may become fully immersed and are causes of bondage. The other two are pure states of meditation and conduct, which are causes of emancipation. They are:
  Arta-Dhyana, "a mental condition of suffering, agony and anguish." Usually caused by thinking about an object of desire or a painful ailment.
  Raudra-Dhyana, associated with cruelty, aggressive and possessive urges.
  Dharma-Dhyana, "virtuous" or "customary", refers to knowledge of the soul, the non-soul and the universe. Over time this became associated with discriminating knowledge (bheda-vijñāna) of the tattvas (truths or fundamental principles).
  Sukla-Dhyana (pure or white), divided into (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 are said to require knowledge of the lost Jain scriptures known as purvas and thus it is considered by some Jains that pure meditation was no longer possible. The other two forms are said in the Tattvartha sutra to be only accessible to Kevalins (enlightened ones).
  This broad definition of the term dhyana means that it signifies any state of deep concentration, with good or bad results. Later texts like Umaswati's Tattvārthasūtra and Jinabhadra's Dhyana-Sataka (sixth century) also discusses these four dhyanas. This system seems to be uniquely Jain.
  
  During this era, a key text was the Tattvarthasutra by Acharya Umāsvāti which codified Jain doctrine. According to the Tattvarthasutra, yoga is the sum of all the activities of mind, speech and body. Umāsvāti (fl. sometime between the 2nd and 5th-century CE) calls yoga the cause of "asrava" or karmic influx as well as one of the essentials—samyak caritra—in the path to liberation. Umāsvāti prescribed a threefold path of yoga: ri
caption: Umaswati in full lotus posture
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