Living Systems in Jainism: A Scientific Study: 07.03 ►Bhava, Emotions and Passions in Jainism

Bhava and emotions have different meanings in Jainism. Bhava is said to be a disposition of the subtle level of consciousness of the soul. Bhava is the subtle vibrations of the soul that arise due to the changes in karma on its rise (udaya), fruition (vipaka), subsidence (upashama), annihilation (ksaya) and annihilation-cum-subsidence (ksayopashama)^[1]. Emotions are caused by the rise of quasi-passions (nokashaya), part of conduct-deluding (charitra-mohaniya) karma. Thus, the emotions are just one aspect of bhava, or the attitude (disposition) of the soul, in Jainism.

The main karma responsible for kashaya and nokashaya is conduct-deluding karma. In Chapter 3, I introduced deluding karma's two subtypes, (a) belief (or perception)-deluding (darshana-mohaniya) karma and (b) conduct-deluding (charitra-mohaniya) karma. Belief-deluding karma (darshana-mohaniya) has three subtypes: wrong belief (or non-belief)-deluding karma (mithyatva), mixed belief-deluding karma (samyagmithyatva-misra), and right belief-deluding karma (samayak prakriti mithyatva). Conduct-deluding karma (charitra-mohaniya) has two subtypes:

1. Kashaya karma. Kashaya is translated as "passions": anger, ego, deceit and greed. Each passion can be present in four grades: anantanubandhi, apratyakhyanavarana, pratyakhyanavarana, and samjvalana (flaming up). Thus, there are 16 subtypes of passion karma.
2. Nokashaya karma. Nokashaya is translated as "emotions:" laughter (including joking, sarcasm, ridicule, criticism, humor, satire, etc.); indulgence (or love, happiness); dissatisfaction (or hate, sadness); sorrow; fear; disgust; male disposition; female disposition; and hermaphrodite disposition (the last three indicate sexual desires). The soul experiencing these emotions is hindered in the practice of right conduct.

We must understand the difference between passions, kashaya, and emotions, nokashaya. Passions and emotions belong to the same family of conduct-deluding karma and are similar in character, except that passions are higher-order experiences than emotions. Both passions and emotions cause bondage. Emotions excite the karma (field), and therefore the soul; passions provide the force for the bonding of karma. In fact, emotions are multiplying factors: they cause the effects of the passions to multiply and participate in the bonding process. In the absence of emotions, the passions are not as powerful.

On the basis of the above, we can classify emotions into seven basic categories: joking (laughter); liking (love, happiness); disliking (hate, sadness); sorrow; fear; disgust; and sexual desire. The passions are four (anger, ego/pride, deceit and greed), each occurring in four grades to give a total of 16 subtypes. The passions can take place with or without emotions. The intensity of the passions when mixed with emotions is greater than the intensity of the passions without emotions. These karmas are the principal cause for the embodiment of the soul and are the main determinants of the mode of the soul. The whole emphasis in Jain philosophy is on their elimination. Emotions and passions are not a natural property of the soul; they are generated by karma. The natural property of the soul is equanimity; the inculcation of this property provides the means to eliminate passions and emotions. An individual practicing equanimity does not allow passions and emotions to affect him or her, and thus prevents the influx of new karma.

Our knowledge, perception, vitality, thoughts, feelings, and emotions represent the attitude or disposition (bhava) of the soul at any instant^[2]. The disposition (bhava) of the soul is determined by rising karma. There are three ways in which karma creates an effect: (i) fruition or rise of karma, in which the karma becomes active after completing the passive period; (ii) subsidence of karma, in which the karma is suppressed temporarily by willpower and made ineffective; and (iii) annihilation of karma, in which the karma is eliminated completely by powerful actions. Based on this, there are five kinds of dispositions or active modes of the soul's manifestation:

1. Disposition (bhava) of the soul by the rise of karma (audayika bhava)
2.  Disposition (bhava) of the soul by the subsidence of karma (aupashamika bhava)
3. Disposition (bhava) of the soul by the annihilation of karma (ksayika bhava)
4. Disposition (bhava) of the soul by the partial subsidence and partial annihilation of karma (ksayopshamika bhava)
5. Disposition (bhava) of the soul by its natural disposition (parinamika bhava).

There are some faculties of the soul that do not yield to karmic forces. These faculties are responsible for the generation of its natural disposition. The manifestations that depend upon the soul alone are natural. They are independent of the operation, destruction, subsidence and the destruction-subsidence of the karmas. Actually speaking, these manifestations are the expression of the modes that result from different attributes of the soul. The modes themselves are not identified with them; in fact, the subdivisions of these natural manifestations suggest that they represent the generality of a number of the soul's attributes.

According to Jain philosophy, in the life of a jiva the karma pudgala are sometimes active while other times they are dormant. The active stage reflects the "audayika" personality whereas the dormant personality is known as "ksayopashamika." In the audayika personality, the karma is in the state of rising; in the ksayopashamika personality, it is in the state of annihilation-cum-subsidence.

There are seven characteristics of the audayika personality:

1. Lack of capacity to know and perceive
2. Infatuation due to the impulses of anger, fear and libido
3. Experience of powerlessness
4. Experience of pain or pleasure
5. Experience of high or low status
6. Experience of auspicious and inauspicious things
7. Experience of life and death

There are four characteristics of the ksayopashamika personality:

1. Capacity to know and see things
2. Amurchha (freedom from infatuation), Abhaya (fearlessness) and Ananda (bliss)
3. Experience of powerfulness
4. Freedom from experiencing pleasure and pain

The symptoms of audayika and ksayopashamika personalities are exactly opposite of each other. When the jiva settles into the state of chaitanya, i.e. pure consciousness, its dual personality fades out and it attains a truly "ksayika" (emancipated) personality due to the total annihilation of all psychical karma.

The fruition of karma decides the realm of existence in which the soul will be born, its gender, and its attitudes like anger, ego, deceit, greed, wrong belief, wrong knowledge, and non-restraint. The suppression of karma develops attitudes of true faith and true conduct. The annihilation of karma develops true faith, true conduct, right perception, right knowledge, vitality, etc. Partial suppression and partial annihilation of karma develops: true faith; true conduct; the perceptions of vision, non-vision and clairvoyance; empirical, scriptural and clairvoyant knowledge of right or wrong; mind reading; vitality; partial restraint; and so on. The general body of karma determines the state of the individual soul.

In the following analysis it is assumed that passions and emotions are closely linked and that together they determine the state of the perverted soul. It is their combination that is important in the study of emotions. In the spiritual ascent of the soul, the emotions are eliminated first; some passions exist until the very last stage of spiritual development.

The seven basic emotions, 16 passions, and three beliefs can combine to give a range of emotional states. These states are determined by the rise/fruition of karma. The possible combinations of the rise/fruition of deluding karma have been described as follows^[3]:

1) Souls practicing mahavrata (ascetics). These souls have attained samyaktva and have only flaming up passions (F). The following emotions are possible:

a. F anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed). No emotion is on     rise.^[4]

b. F anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex emotion. Here any passion combines with the sex emotion.^[5]

c. F anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex emotion + joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow). Here it is assumed that some emotions occur in pairs, e.g. joking and liking, and disliking and sorrow.^[6]

Example   F anger plus sex

i. F anger plus sex, joking and liking

ii. F anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow

d. F anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex emotion + joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear (or disgust or samyaktva)

Example   F anger plus sex, fear

i. F anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear

ii. F anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear

iii. F anger plus sex, disgust

iv. F anger plus sex, joking and liking, disgust

v. F anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, disgust

e. F anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex emotion + joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust (or fear + samyaktva or disgust + samyaktva)^[7]

Example   F anger plus sex, fear, disgust

i. F anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear, disgust

ii. F anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear, disgust

2) Souls practicing anuvratas. In this case the anantanubandhi and apratyakhyanavarana passions have been eliminated. The other two types of passions, pratyakhyanavarana and flaming up, rise simultaneously. Or, we can assume that the flaming up passions have a comparatively negligible effect on the soul in the presence of pratyakhyanavarana (P) passions.

The following combinations are possible in this case:

a. P anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow)^[8]

Example p anger plus sex

i. P anger plus sex, joking and liking

ii. P anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow

b. P anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex + joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow + fear (disgust or samyaktva)

Example   p anger plus sex, fear

i. P anger plus sex, joking, liking, fear

ii. P anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear

iii. p anger plus sex, disgust

iv. P anger plus sex, joking and liking, disgust

v. P anger plus, sex, disliking and sorrow, disgust

3) Soul has samyaktva but is not practicing anuvratas. In this case the anantanubandhi passions have been eliminated. The other three subtypes of the passions rise simultaneously, but for all practical purposes the apratyakhyanavarana (A) passions are dominant.

a.      A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow)^[9]

Example A anger plus sex

i. A anger plus sex, joking and liking

ii. A anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow

b. A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + samyaktva

c. A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear (or disgust or samyaktva)

Example A anger plus sex, fear

i. A anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear

ii. A anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear

iii. A anger plus sex, disgust

iv. A anger plus sex, joking and liking, disgust

v. A anger plus, sex, disliking and sorrow, disgust

d. A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust (or fear + samyaktva or disgust + samyaktva)^[10]

Example   A anger plus sex, fear, disgust

i. A anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear, disgust

ii. A anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear, disgust

4) The soul has eliminated the anantanubandhi passions but has still not attained samyaktva.

a) A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + mixed belief

b) A anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + non-belief (mithyatva)

5) The soul is in the mithyatva (non-belief) state and the anantanubandhi (Ann) passions are present and dominate the emotional state of the soul.

a. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow)^[11]

Example   Ann anger plus sex

i. Ann anger plus sex, joking and liking

ii. Ann anger plus, sex, disliking and sorrow

b. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + samyakprakriti

c. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + mixed belief

d. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) +fear +disgust (samyakprakriti). This is the case when the soul in mithyatva state temporarily attains samyakprakriti.^[12]

Example A anger plus sex, fear, disgust

i. A anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear, disgust

ii. A anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear, disgust

e. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear (disgust) + non-belief

f. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + non-belief

g. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear (disgust)

Example Ann anger plus sex, fear

i. Ann anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear

ii. Ann anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear

iii. Ann anger plus sex, disgust

iv. Ann anger plus sex, joking and liking, disgust

v. Ann anger plus, sex, disliking and sorrow, disgust

h. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + mixed belief

i. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + samyakprakriti

j. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + non-belief

k. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust^[13]

Example   Ann anger plus sex, fear, disgust

i. Ann anger plus sex, joking and liking, fear, disgust

ii. Ann anger plus sex, disliking and sorrow, fear, disgust

l. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear (disgust) + non-belief

m. Ann anger (or pride, deceitfulness, greed) + sex +joking and liking (or disliking and sorrow) + fear + disgust + non-belief

The above combinations include both belief-deluding and conduct-deluding karma subtypes. Belief-deluding karma is known to participate in the cognition activity of the soul,^[14] and so is a part of the perception and knowledge process, as explained in Chapter 4. This implies that the rise of this karma describes the bhava rather than the emotional states. It is, therefore, presumed that the combinations with only subtypes of conduct-deluding karma describe the states of passions and emotions. It is further presumed that the combination of kashaya (passions) and nokashaya (emotions) also constitute emotions. This means that the emotions are mixed with passions, which appears to be true in practice. Based on these assumptions, the number of emotions calculated in each case is written in parenthesis at the end of each combination. In this calculation, sex has been considered one emotion. Adding up the emotions we get:

Number of emotions (mixed type) = 200

Adding the 7 basic emotions, the total number of emotions is 207. We do not have names for all of these, but this demonstrates the wide spectrum of possible emotions.

The emotions, passions and bhava appear to operate differently in the system. The rising deluding karma emits radiations that interact with the tejas body to produce lesya waves. Lesya waves interact with the endocrine glands that secrete hormones, which control the chemical activity in the body. Hormone secretion has been found to be associated with emotions and passions. As emotions and passions are produced by rising deluding karma, they are not supposed to have cognitive components – which would require the operation of intelligence-obscuring and awareness-obscuring karma. Therefore, emotions and passions appear to describe the non-cognitive states of the soul. Bhava, on the other hand, takes into account all of the psychical karmas – indicating that the mind is involved in this process. Therefore, bhava is assumed to describe the cognitive states of the soul. Comparing this scenario with Western approaches we find that:

1. In Jainism, emotions and bhava are not properties of the soul; rather, they are karma-generated experiences. There is no such concept in Western thought.
2. Jainism distinguishes between bhava and emotions. Bhava is the overall cognitive state of the soul, produced by the rise of different karmas. Emotion is the non-cognitive state of the soul produced mainly by the rise of conduct-deluding karma and constitutes just one aspect or subset of bhava.
3. Emotions are systematically classified in Jainism. Jains and Western thinkers differ in defining some emotions. Anger is a passion in Jainism and an emotion in Western philosophy. Also, sexual desire is an emotion in Jainism and a passion in Western thought.

The diversity of views on cognitive and non-cognitive emotions in Western thought results from the grouping of emotions and bhava into one category. For instance, Ben-Ze'ev appears to refer to bhava, not emotions. Scherer also appears to refer to bhava in his proposition referred to above.