This panel brings together five scholars studying Jain contemplative practices through philological, historical, anthropological, and philosophical approaches. The first three presentations examine Jain ideas on contemplation as presented in various Jain texts: the Cīvakacintāmaṇi (9th century), Yaśovijaya’s Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā (17th century), and Śrīmad Rājcandra’s Mokṣamāḷā and Ātmasiddhi (19th century). Each presenter analyzes how these texts articulate or portray Jain contemplative practices within their respective historical and intellectual contexts. The remaining presentations explore contemporary cultural intersections of Jainism and contemplative practices. Case studies include Acharya Sushil Kumar’s “Arhum Yoga,” which integrates Jain and non-Jain elements into a unique system of yoga and sound theory, and prekṣā-dhyāna, a systematized Jain meditation practice framed for a global audience that emphasizes contemporary concerns, such as health and science. Collectively, these five presentations shed new light on the variegated nature of Jain contemplative practices and provide new research opportunities in Jain Studies and Contemplative Studies.
The 9th century Tamil narrative poem Cīvakacintāmaṇi is not the first place most scholars of Jain studies would think to look for Jain perspectives on contemplative practice. This text, which tells the story of Cīvakaṉ (Jivandhra in Sanskrit) is well known–even infamous–for its excessively erotic nature. Although some scholars interpret it as ultimately critical of embodied experiences, we can also read the work as exploring what it means to be embodied while on a spiritual path. In the narrative world of the Cīvakacintāmaṇi, animal interactions form a critical part of that path for Cīvakaṉ. This paper looks at the ways animal interactions and animal suffering catalyze intense emotional experiences, moments of contemplation, mantric practice, and the central character’s ultimate decision to renounce kingship and the world. Despite the story’s antiquity, these key moments can serve as guiding examples even in today’s world.
Pātañjali's teachings on the workings of the mind and the experience of meditation have been well-researched. The first part of his Yogasūtra—the samādhi pāda—presents, among other topics, different practices to stabilize the mind, obstacles in meditation, and different types of samādhi. Its compact style has often posed challenges for commentators. This paper examines Yaśovijaya’s engagement with this part of the Yogasūtra in the Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā, a long Jain compendium on mendicant conduct that includes an auto-commentary. Despite his influence on Jain thought, Yaśovijaya remains understudied, and much of his work has not been translated into English. With original translations, this paper explores how Yaśovijaya offers a particular interpretation of Patañjali’s teachings on meditation, drawing from Vyāsa at points, building on earlier Jain authors like Haribhādrasūri, and applying Jain ontological and ethical frameworks. It also shows how his engagements with different current of thought reveal important concerns of his time.
Śrīmad Rājcandra (1867–1901) was a prominent Jain mystic, philosopher, and poet whose impactful teachings continue to influence Jain philosophy and spirituality, particularly in Gujarat, India, and among the Gujarati diaspora. His spiritual approach emphasized the imminent potential for spiritual liberation through self-realization, detachment, and contemplation, offering a perspective that may seem more immediate than what many Jains might believe. This paper explores Śrīmad Rājcandra's teachings on contemplative practices, drawing from his works such as Mokṣamāḷā and the Ātmasiddhi, which provide detailed guidance on the contemplative practices important for liberation within the Jain tradition while connecting modern and pre-modern ideas about Jain contemplative practice.
This paper features Jain contemplative practices in the “Arhum Yoga” tradition of Acharya Sushil Kumar (1926–1994), a Jain guru who left India to establish a community in North America in the 1970s. While Kumar described his contemplative system as “Jain Yoga” in his book, Song of the Soul (SOtS), a study of the contemplative practices contained therein reveals that Kumar was drawing from manifold non-Jain pan-South Asian influences to create his yoga system. He was therefore carrying forward a medieval tradition found in Jain yoga texts such as Hemacandra’s Yogaśāstra and the later Yogapradīpa, both of which drew contemplative practices from non-Jain traditions though without losing their commitment to Jain soteriology. What is most striking, however, is how Kumar draws from non-Jain Vedic, haṭha-yogic, and tantric traditions, and in doing so appears at times to present a non-Jain ontological and soteriological system – features of SOtS this paper will carefully untangle.
The term contemplation (anuprekṣā) is an ancient Jain meditative practice which is based on continuing to think about religious subjects with soteriological purpose. The Uttarādhyayanasūtra describes the daily routine of ascetics which consists of the practice of five types of self-study (svādhyāya) wherein anuprekṣā is one technique used as a component of advanced types of meditation (dharma-dhyāna and śukla-dhyāna). This paper notes a shift toward a systematized, modern packaging of anuprekṣā, which is different from its traditional forms in the Jain Āgamas and Tattvārthasūtra (9.7), as it is presented under the meditation system named prekṣā-dhyāna by Ācārya Mahāprajña (1920–2010). The main difference between the premodern practices and modern anuprekṣā is that the premodern method involved merely mental thinking, whereas in modern anuprekṣā many steps such as relaxation, positive affirmation, color visualization and concentration on psychic centers within the body are introduced, demonstrating the entanglement of secular and soteriological goals.