Articles & Blog
207 articles
Six Eternal Substances and the Idea of Conservation
Jainism reduces all of reality to six eternal substances that are never created or destroyed. This deep commitment to conservation echoes th...
Paramanu: The Jain Atom Before the Atom
Centuries before modern chemistry, Jain philosophers described matter as built from indivisible ultimate particles called paramanu, with pro...
Nothing Is Destroyed: Matter, Energy and Permanence
Jain philosophy insists that matter can be transformed endlessly but never created or destroyed. This principle sits close to one of the dee...
Nigoda: Microbial Life in Jain Thought
Jain scriptures describe nigoda, countless minute organisms clustered together in every corner of the cosmos. Long before microscopes, this...
From One Sense to Five: A Ladder of Sentience
Jainism classifies living beings by how many senses they possess, from single-sensed microbes to five-sensed humans. It is an early, systema...
Do Plants Feel? Vanaspatikaya and Modern Botany
Jainism has long regarded plants as living, sensitive beings deserving of care. Modern plant science is uncovering surprising sensitivity an...
Classifying the Living World: A Jain Taxonomy
Long before Linnaeus, Jain thinkers built a detailed system for sorting all living beings by embodiment, senses and mobility. It is one of h...
Life in Earth, Water, Fire and Air
Jainism holds that the elements themselves host living beings, with bodies of earth, water, fire and air. It is a radical extension of life...
Sammurchana: Spontaneous Generation Reconsidered
Jain texts describe sammurchana, the arising of certain beings without parents. Modern science rejects spontaneous generation, yet the origi...
Skandhas: How Atoms Combine into Matter
Jain physics explains that lone atoms are imperceptible; only when they bind into aggregates called skandhas does tangible matter appear. It...
Sound as Substance: A Physical Theory of Noise
Uniquely, Jain philosophy classifies sound as a form of matter rather than a quality. This surprising stance resonates with the physics of s...
Light, Shadow and Darkness as Forms of Matter
Jain physics treats light, darkness and even shadow as material phenomena, modes of Pudgala. The materiality of light finds a striking echo...