Living Systems in Jainism: A Scientific Study: 05.04 ►Faculties of the Soul

Eight types of karma are defined in Jainism; at any moment, the karma undergoing change could be any of these eight types. Although the consciousness of the soul is one, it manifests in eight different qualities: kevalajnana (omniscience), kevaladarshana (pure and perfect awareness), atmikasukha (self-bliss), anantavirya (unfettered and unrestricted spiritual energy), ksayikasamyaktva (possession of complete truth), atal-avagahana (eternal unchanging existence), amurtatva (total formlessness), and agurulaghutva (permanence and total parity with other pure souls). The karmas that veil these qualities of the soul have corresponding names, as shown in Table 1. The qualities of the soul are not fully obscured by karma: a small fraction always manifests. The manifested quality represents the corresponding "intelligence" of the soul. For instance, manifested jnana is the knowing intelligence of the soul and manifested darshana is its perceiving intelligence. These intelligent qualities are reflected in the karma by the method described in Section 5.3, which represents the "intelligent" physical force that works in the physical body of the organism. This working, intelligent physical force is called a faculty of the soul.

Table 1 Faculties of the Empirical Soul

As shown in Table 1, there are eight faculties of the empirical soul, corresponding to the eight qualities of the soul. These faculties are:

1. Faculty of knowing. By this faculty, the soul acquires knowledge of an object. The greater the jnanavaraniya karma, the less developed the faculty of knowing and the cognition ability of the soul.

2. Faculty of awareness. By this faculty, the soul becomes aware of the self and of the environment. The greater the darsanavaraniya karma, the more limited the faculty of awareness and vice versa.

3. Faculty of feeling. The soul senses and experiences pleasure on the rise of satavedaniya karma and pain on the rise of asatavedaniya karma; the intensity of pleasure and pain depends on the magnitude and rate of the rising karma.

4. Faculty of attitude. When antaraya karmas are on rise, the soul has a negative attitude toward life. When antaraya karmas are not on rise, the soul has a positive attitude.

5. Faculties of perception and of equanimity, volition and desire. This faculty can be divided into two parts based on the two subtypes of mohaniya karma.

a.False perception on the rise of darshanamohaniya karma. The intelligence of the soul is not able to perceive the truth, so perception is biased.

b.Imperfect practice on the rise of charitramohaniya karma. The soul is not able to practice free of passions, emotions and desires. Its conduct is guided by desires and passions, and such conduct is at variance with the true nature of the soul and its knowledge and awareness ability.

Both of these faculties affect the soul's equanimity of conduct; the more karmas that are on rise, the farther from equanimity the conduct becomes.

6. Faculty of life force. This faculty provides the life force for the being and exists as long as ayusya karma is in balance. Without this faculty, life is not possible in the organism.

7. Faculty of organism design and creation. This faculty provides the intelligent physical force for designing and creating the body structure of the organism, just like an artist conceives and creates a painting. This faculty is the force and intelligence behind the formation of organisms of various species and their body structures, i.e. the force for biological and physiological processes in organic beings.

8. Faculty of quality. This faculty controls the quality of both the structure and actions of the organism. When high gotra karma is on rise, the organism's quality and performance is high; when low gotra karma is on rise, the quality and performance is low.

All eight faculties work together and jointly determine the personality and performance of the empirical soul. The eight faculties, their subtypes and their grades, defined by divisions similar to those of karma, combine in a very large number, perhaps infinite, of ways so that each soul is unique in practice.

For comparison, it is worth mentioning that Aristotle^[1] described five faculties: (1) the vegetative faculty, concerned with the maintenance and development of organic life; (2) the appetite, or the tendency to any good; (3) the faculty of sense perception; (4) the locomotive faculty, which presides over the various bodily movements; and (5) reason.

We can also divide the faculties into two groups, based on two divisions of karma.

1. Psychical or external faculties. These faculties concern the psychical performance of the soul and are the means whereby it interacts with external objects. These include the faculty of knowing; faculty of awareness; faculty of equanimity, volition and desire; and the faculty of attitude. These faculties are expressed externally and can be measured if suitable ways can be devised. They operate through the mind, which has a large bearing on their functioning. When the psychical karmas are annihilated, these faculties cease to exist and the natural qualities of the soul that were obscured by these karmas manifest in their true form.

2. Biological or internal faculties. These faculties concern the biological and physiological functions of the empirical soul. They include the faculty of feeling; faculty of life force; faculty of designing and creation; and the faculty of quality. These faculties are internal, and we are not consciously aware of them. They work on an involuntary basis and are not accessible to the mind, which is a product of the psychical faculties. These faculties remain in existence even after the psychical karmas are eliminated. They cease to exist on liberation.

The performance and behavior of the soul is guided by both the psychical and biological faculties. The function of the psychical faculties, which generally operate through the conscious mind, in determining our performance is clearly understood. The activities of cognition, perception, feeling and willing, thinking and imagining, etc. is all guided by the psychical faculties. However, the biological faculties primarily concern the biological functions, which also influence our performance.

The concept of faculties of the soul has two advantages. First, instead of dealing with a system composed of the non-physical soul and physical body, which is difficult to analyze, the task is reduced to dealing with only the physical faculties and the physical body. Second, the processes and phenomena in the revised system are amenable to scientific analysis. We must remember that the intelligence and subjectivity of the soul is accounted for in defining the faculties. This concept of psychical faculties can help in the study of the psychology of human beings. The internal biological faculties help in explaining the biological and physiological processes taking place in organisms. In this chapter, we consider only the biological and physiological processes; the psychical processes are studied in the last chapter.

The sequence of activities that take place in the operation of the life system is shown in Figure 3. Yoga, activity of the mind, speech and body (senses), causes the bonding of dravya karma at state K1. This action is reflected in the bhava karma of the soul. The soul responds intelligently based on its constituent structure, including kashaya, and changes from S1 to S2.  This change in bhava karma changes the state of dravya karma to K2, and the concerned faculty forces direct Activity 2 in the body – which, at the same time, also has input from the biological response of the gross body.

Figure 3 Operation of the Life System

There are two determinants of Activity 2: (1) the biological response to Activity 1, based on physical principles; and (2) the directives of the soul through the faculties. The resulting Activity 2 is, therefore, a complex subjective phenomenon and may not be predicted by known rules of physical science. This process proceeds at a fast rate, almost instantaneously, and we experience these Activities in a continuous manner. If the response of the soul and the biological response are similar, Activity 2 may appear as the logical, scientific outcome of Activity 1. If the soul response is not the same as the biological response, Activity 2 may be different from what is expected according to the physical sciences. Thus, the effect of the soul's subjectivity may not always be discernable, although it always exists. The system's performance is determined by two kinds of responses: (1) the physical, matter; and (2) the sentient, spiritual. In case of match of the two responses, order may be maintained in the system; a mismatch may produce disorder.

We must distinguish between karma and faculty. Note that karma is bi-directional in its operation; it is affected by the activities of the mind, speech and body and also affects these activities. The faculty of the soul is unidirectional: it affects the activity of mind, speech and body, but not vice versa.

The activities, and hence the performance, of the soul are influenced by the environment. Scientific findings also show a relationship between genetic performance and the environment. Scientists now recognize that both genes and the environment influence behavior^[2]. Genes, via their influences on morphology and physiology, create a framework with which the environment acts to shape the behavior of the individual animal. The environment can affect morphological and physiological development; in turn, behavior develops as a result of the organism's shape and internal workings. Genes also create the scaffold for learning, memory, and cognition: mechanisms that allow animals to acquire and store information about their environment that they then use to shape their behavior. Much behavioral genetic research today focuses on identifying the genes that affect behavior such as personality and intelligence, and disorders such as autism, hyperactivity, depression, and schizophrenia.

Epigenetics is another emerging field in the study of behavior^[3].  Epigenetics concerns stability heritable phenotype resulting from changes in a chromosome without alterations in the DNA sequence. "Epigenetic changes can modify the activation of certain genes, but not the DNA sequence itself. Additionally, the chromatin proteins (around which DNA is wrapped) may be activated or silenced. This is why the differentiated cells in a multi-cellular organism express only the genes that are necessary for their own activity. Epigenetic changes are preserved when cells divide."

The activation of genes is caused by signals coming from some source. There are two possible sources: the biological faculties and the environment. Karma radiation is an internal source that sends signals directly to cells to initiate changes in the DNA protein, thereby regulating the selective functioning of DNA. The environment is an external source, which acts through the senses and the mind; the signals from this interaction are generated in the brain. Scientists are aware of this environmental source, but are unaware of the biological faculties, which, in addition to the psychical faculties, may be the main force behind our behavior.

"Behavioral epigenetics is the field of study examining the role of epigenetics in shaping animal and human behavior."^[4] "Epigenetic changes can influence the growth of neurons in the developing brain as well as modify the activity of the neurons in the adult brain. Together, these epigenetic changes in neuron structure and function can have a marked influence on an organism's behavior."