Abstract thinking
By: by Acharya Mahaprajna ; translated into English, R.K. Seth ; [editor, Muni Mahendra Kumar]
Contributors: Mahendrakumar, Muni, 1937-; Seth, R. K.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Ladnun
Language: eng
Number of pages: 327
Subjects: Jainism; Meditation; Abstraction; Spiritual life
Description: "The world we live in constitutes an alliance of sensuous consciousness and concrete matter. Our knowledge is contained within the circumference of our senses and all material substances subsist within the periphery of speech, form, smell, taste and touch. Five senses with their objects-these constitute our small world. In fact, this world is not so small-it is very extensive. But the power of the senses is very limited. They apprehend only gross material objects. Atoms are concrete enough, yet the senses cannot apprehend them. Innumberable atoms unite to form a mass which is yet too subtle for the senses to apprehend. They can apprehend only those substances which are made up of an infinite number of atoms and have developed gross concreteness. Our senses cannot even apprehend the whole of the corporeal world. So the question of their apprehending the incorporeal, intangible world does not arise. The incorporeal elements are beyond sound, smell, taste, and touch. Their atoms are different from those of the material world. Thus the effort of one who seeks to know the incorporeal world through the senses will not be successful. The knowledge of the incorporeal world is a subject of supreme extrasensory perception. Even common extrasensory perception would not succeed. Only supreme extrasensory perception may attain it. The starting point of religion is extrasensory consciousness. One endowed with only sensory perception cannot appreciate it. Only that person may be said to be religious who is able to appraise both the concrete and the abstract." Book jacket.
Notes: Translated from Hindi.
Table of contents: title: Anupreksha and bhavana; title: Bhavana of transitoriness/impermanence; title: Bhavana of insecurity/helplessness; title: Bhavana of transmigration; title: Bhavana of solitariness; title: Bhavana of otherness, of separation; title: Bhavana of uncleanliness/impurity; title: Bhavana of influxes; title: Bhavana of restraint/inhibition; title: Bhavana of dissociation/wearing off karme; title: Bhavana of righteousness; title: Bhavana of the institution of the universe/cosmos; title: Bhavana of the rarity of enlightenment; title: Bhavana of friendship; title: Bhavana of appreciation; title: Bhavana of compassion; title: Bhavana of indifference; title: Anupreksha of dutifulness; title: Anupreksha of self-reliance; title: Anupreksha of truth; title: Anupreksha of synthesis; title: Anupreksha of secularism; title: Anupreksha of the unity of mankind; title: Anupreksha of spirituality and science; title: Anupreksha of mental equilibrium; title: Anupreksha of patience; title: Anupreksha of honesty; title: Anupreksha of simplicity; title: Anupreksha of co-existence; title: Anupreksha of non-attachment; title: Anupreksha of tolerance; title: Anupreksha of gentleness; title: Anupreksha of fearlessness; title: Anupreksha of self-discipline; title: Anupreksha: practice and technique.