Jain Dhyāna: A Beginner Approach

Authors

  • Muskan Ali

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12794/journals.sujjs.v2i1.329

Keywords:

dhyāna, meditation, liberation

Abstract

In the spring semester 2024, the author traveled to India via a grant from the Kundakunda Study Jainism Abroad Scholarship to explore Jainism’s teachings on dhyāna, or meditation. The current paper synthesizes the author’s conversations about dhyāna with Jittubhai Panditji of the Digambara tradition and Dr. Acharya Shri Vijay Nandansurishwarji Maharaj Saheb of the Śvetāmbara. These interviews, conducted in person during the trip, reveal a broad range of commonalities in approaches to teaching meditation to beginners but also differences regarding views on the relation between the mind and the self.

Author Biography

  • Muskan Ali
    Muskan Ali graduated from Emory University in 2024 with a double major in Religion and Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She is currently pursuing her MD at the Long School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

References

Āryarakṣitavijaya, ed. “Āvaśyaka Niryukti.” In Āvaśyakaniryukti with Haribhadra’s Commentary. Ahmedabad, 2013.

Gough, Ellen. Making a Mantra: Tantric Ritual and Renunciation on the Jain Path to Liberation. University of Chicago Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226767239.001.0001.

Haribhadrasūri. The Yogabindu of Ācārya Haribhadrasūri. Translated by K. K. Dixit. Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Bharatiya Sanskriti Vidyamandira, 1968.

Nandighoshvijay. Jain Dharma Vigyana ki Kasoti par ya Vigyana Jain Dharma ki Kasoti par. Bharatiya Prachin Sahitya Vaigyanik Rahasya Shodh Sanstha, 2005.

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Published

2026-05-20

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Muskan Ali

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Ali, Muskan. 2026. “Jain Dhyāna: A Beginner Approach”. Samyak: An Undergraduate Journal of Jain Studies 2 (1). https://doi.org/10.12794/journals.sujjs.v2i1.329.