Jainism

Tradition·Founded c. 550 BCE·est. ~4–5 million worldwide

Vedic Religion → Jainism

Branch
Scripture of Jainism

The Tattvartha Sutra.

Three hundred and fifty aphorisms in Sanskrit containing the entire system — soul, non-soul, the inflow of karma, its bondage, its stopping, its shedding, and liberation. Both Digambaras and Svetambaras accept it, which after two millennia of disagreeing about nearly everything else makes it the only common ground in the library.

LanguageSanskrit, in about 350 aphorisms
ComposedUmaswati, somewhere between the second and fifth century
What it holdsThe whole system compressed — soul, matter, karma, the seven categories, the path — opening with the sentence that right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together are the way out
How it is usedThe one text both Digambaras and Svetambaras accept, which after two thousand years of disagreement is not a small thing
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

Umaswati's Tattvartha Sutra — also called the Tattvarthadhigama Sutra or, popularly, the Moksha Shastra — is the single most important text in Jainism and the only major one both sects accept, though they use slightly different recensions and disagree about the author's sectarian affiliation and even his name. It is written in Sanskrit rather than Prakrit, which was itself a move toward the pan-Indian philosophical mainstream, and consists of roughly 350 terse aphorisms across ten chapters covering the seven tattvas: soul, non-soul, karmic influx, bondage, stoppage, shedding and liberation, plus cosmology, the categories of living beings, and the vows. Its opening sutra — right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation — is the definition of the three jewels that every Jain knows. It is memorised, commented on continuously since at least the fifth century, and used as the standard teaching text at every level. The commentaries — Pujyapada's Sarvarthasiddhi, Akalanka's and Vidyanandi's, and the Svetambara Bhashya — are the main channel of Jain philosophical work.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct together constitute the path to liberation.

Umaswati, Tattvartha Sutra 1.1 (rendered)

The three jewels, in the opening line of the only text both sects accept.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The Rigveda. Vedic Religion Open the book →
The self is reborn until liberation. Hinduism · core tenet Go deeper →
Suffering has a cause, and therefore an end. Buddhism · core tenet Go deeper →
Argument, for the sake of heaven, is sacred. Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
The Bible. Christianity Open the book →
The Quran is the speech of God. Islam · core tenet Go deeper →

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