Articles & Blog
45 articles
Asrava and Bandha: The Inflow and Grip of Karma
Asrava is the influx of karmic matter through mind, speech, and body; bandha is its adhesion to the soul. Together they explain how the pure...
Samvara and Nirjara: Stopping and Shedding Karma
Samvara halts the inflow of new karma through restraint and vigilance, while nirjara burns away karma already bound through austerity, toget...
The Five Bhavas: Modes of the Soul's Existence
The bhavas are five states in which the soul exists in relation to its karma, from the karma-free kshayika to the ever-present parinamika, m...
Ajiva: The Non-Living Substances of Reality
In Jain metaphysics the cosmos is a duality of the living and the non-living. Ajiva denotes everything without consciousness, the inert stag...
The Six Dravyas: Eternal Substances of the Cosmos
Jain thought maps all of reality onto six everlasting substances. Uncreated and indestructible, together they account for consciousness, mat...
Pudgala and the Paramanu: Jain Atomism
Jainism teaches that matter is composed of indivisible atoms that combine and disperse without cease. This ancient atomic theory underlies i...
Dharma and Adharma: The Media of Motion and Rest
Uniquely among world philosophies, Jainism posits two invisible substances whose sole office is to make motion and rest possible, defining t...
Akasha: Space and the Boundaries of the Cosmos
Jain cosmology divides infinite space into the inhabited universe and the boundless void beyond. Akasha alone is infinite, giving room to al...
Kala and the Great Cosmic Cycles of Time
Jainism sees time as a real substance and history as a wheel forever turning through ascending and descending half-cycles of prosperity and...
Dravya, Guna and Paryaya: Substance, Quality, Mode
The Jain analysis of reality into substance, quality, and mode allows it to affirm that things are at once permanent and changing, resolving...
A Universe Without a Creator: The Jain View of God
Jainism denies a creator deity and an eternal governing god. The cosmos is beginningless and self-sustaining, and the truly divine is the pe...
Samsara and Rebirth: The Wandering of the Soul
Bound by karmic matter, the Jain soul wanders endlessly through births in every form of life. Samsara is beginningless, but through right ef...