Yoga in Jainism

Christopher Chapple, Christopher Key Chapple, Christopher Chapple, Christopher Key Chapple

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781138829077
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317572176
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Jaina Studies is a relatively new and rapidly expanding field of inquiry for scholars of Indian religion and philosophy. In Jainism, "yoga" carries many meanings, and this book explores the definitions, nuances, and applications of the term in relation to Jainism from early times to the present.

Yoga in Jainism begins by discussing how the use of the term yoga in the earliest Jaina texts described the mechanics of mundane action or karma. From the time of the later Upanisads, the word Yoga became associated in all Indian religions with spiritual practices of ethical restraint, prayer, and meditation. In the medieval period, Jaina authors such as Haribhadra, Subhacandra, and Hemacandra used the term Yoga in reference to Jaina spiritual practice. In the modern period, a Jaina form of Yoga emerged, known as Preksa Dhyana. This practice includes the physical postures and breathing exercises well known through the globalization of Yoga.

By exploring how Yoga is understood and practiced within Jainism, this book makes an important contribution to the fields of Yoga Studies, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and South Asian Studies.

1 The historical development of the Jaina Yoga system and the impacts of other Yoga systems on Jaina Yoga

A comparative and critical study

Sagarmal Jain

Jainism, like the other religions of Indian origin, attaches supreme importance to yoga and dhyāna (meditation) as a means to both spiritual advancement and emancipation. According to the Uttarādhyayanasūtra (one of the four Mūlasūtras of the Jaina canon), one can know the real nature of self through right knowledge; one can have faith in it through right vision or right attitude. Similarly, one can have control over it through right conduct, but the purification of self can only be achieved through right tapas.¹ As per Jainism, tapas (penance) has two supreme wings, which are known as Śukla-Dhyāna (meditation, or concentration) and kāyotsarga, i.e. non-attachment toward one’s own body as well as worldly belongings. The Jaina believes that emancipation, which is the ultimate goal of our life, can only be achieved by Śukla-Dhyāna, which is the state of pure self-awareness, or knowership. Thus, according to Jainism, emancipation can only be achieved by dhyāna, which is also the seventh limb of the Yoga-system of Patañjali. Thus we can say that dhyāna and Yoga are essential factors in Jaina religious practices.

If we want a brief historical account of the development of Jaina Yoga, its meditation methods, and the impact of other Indian Yoga systems upon it, we should first divide the development of the Jaina Yoga system into the following five stages:

1 pre-canonical age (before sixth century B.C.);

2 canonical age (fifth century B.C. to fifth century A.D.);

3 post-canonical age (sixth century A.D. to twelfth century A.D.);

4 age of tantra and rituals (thirteenth to nineteenth century A.D.);

5 modern age (twentieth century).

Pre-canonical age

The concepts of Yoga and meditation are as old as Indian culture itself. From the earliest period, we find two types of evidences regarding Yoga and meditation. Firstly, there is sculptural evidence, and secondly there is literary evidence. For the first phase of Yoga and meditation, both types of evidence are available, but it is very difficult to say that these evidences support the Jaina method of Yoga and meditation. We can only say that this earliest phase of Yoga and meditation belongs to the Śramanic culture, of which Jainism, Buddhism, Ājīvika, Sā

khya Yoga, as well as some other minor Śramanic trends, are the offspring. For this reason every Indian system of Yoga has the right to claim it as its own. This is why there are Jaina scholars who claim that these evidences belong to their own tradition. The earliest sculptural traces regarding Yoga and meditation are found in Mohenjodaro and Harappa. In the excavation of Mohenjodaro and Harappa there were seals found depicting yogis either seated or standing in meditation postures.²

This proves that in that period meditative and yogic practices had been prevalent. The culture of Mohenjodaro and Harappa may be called the earliest phase of the Śramanic culture of India. It is clear that, while the Vedic tradition was engaged in performing yajña or sacrifices, the Śramanic tradition was taking interest in yogic and meditative practices. I am of the opinion that this early Śramanic tradition has been divided over time into various branches, such as Jainism, Buddhism, Sa

khya, Yoga, and Ājīvika, as well as other minor sects. Despite the Upani

adic trend of that period to try to make a synthesis between the Śramanic and the Vedic it was primaril...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Yoga in Jainism
• Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 The Historical Development of the Jaina Yoga System and the Impacts of Other Yoga Systems on Jaina Yoga: A Comparative and Critical Study
• 2 Yoga in the Tattvārthasūtra
• 3 Kundakunda versus Sāṃkhya on the Soul
• 4 Extrasensory Perception (yogi-pratyakṣa) in Jainism, Proofs of its Existence and its Soteriological Implications
• 5 Extrasensory Perception (yogi-pratyakṣa) in Jainism and its Refutations
• 6 The Jaina Yogas of Haribhadra Virahāṅka’s Yogabindu
• 7 Hemacandra on Yoga
• 8 Ethics and Mysticism in Jaina Yoga spirituality
• 9 Yaśovijaya’s View of Yoga
• 10 When will I meet such a Guru? Images of the Yogῑ in Digambar Hymns
• 11 Prekṣā Dhyāna in Jaina Yoga: An Archetypal Ritual for the Proper Ordering of the Soul
• 12 Jain Modern Yoga: The Case of Prekṣā Dhyāna
• 13 Contemporary Expressions of Yoga in Jainism
• Index