INSTINCTS

Instincts play a significant role in our life.  They affect our conduct
as well as behavior. They have been illustrated in Jain Canons from the
karmic philosophical point of view.  One of the modern disciplines of
science is  psychology of behavior which emphasizes the original
instinct in the form of natural tendencies and  modes  of living,
emotions, feelings.  It corroborates the karmic explanations.

What is instinct?

First  of  all  we  should  understand  the  concept  of  an instinct.
There  are two meanings. One is an  emotion  which  is called  an
original instinct in the psychological term  and  the other  is
consciousness. Whatever we do, is influenced  by the impelling force of
these special types of emotions. In the other words instict (samjna)
means particular type of tendency of consciousness  in  which
conscious and  subconscious minds are combined  together  and called
emotions.  Internal  and external causes  activate  them to arise. The
material cause  of them  is karmas. Simultaneously external environment
also affects in their production.

On the basis of the causes of generation we can divide  them into
several types. Thanang Sutra one of the Agama describes ten types of
instincts. The first eight are emotional or sentimental  instincts
whereas rest of the two are concerned with a special type of thought
process.


Instinct of appetite                 Ahara samjna
Instinct of fear                     Bhaya samjna
Instinct of copulation               Maithun samjna
Instinct of possession               parigraha samjna
Instinct of anger                    Krodha samjna
Instinct of Pride                    Mana samjna
Instinct of deceit                   Maya samjna
Instinct of greed                    Lobha samjna
Instinct of collective mind          Ogha samjna
Instinct of individual              Loka samjna


consciousness

The conduct and behavior  are  the outcome of deluding karma (Mohaniya
Karma).  Due to the influence of instinct man changes his habits and
nature.  Therefore the  above  stated classification may be clearly
understood in the light of  karmas philosophy and psychological
divisions.


Outcome of deluding karmas      		Original emotions
Fear                                 				Fear
Anger                                				Anger
Disgust (jugupsa)                    			Hatred
Feminine inclination (striveda)			Sexuality
Masculine inclination (purusveda)    		Sexuality
Common inclination (napunskaveda)		Sexuality
Pride                                				superiority complex
Greed                                				ownership
Indulgence (Rati)                    			attachment
dissatisfaction (Arati)             			sorrow

The  similar division is given by the  well-known psychologist Mac
Dowell in psychological terms as under :

Original tendencies                		Original emotions
Tendency of escapism                 			Fear
Tendency of struggle                 			Anger
Tendency of curiosity                			eagerness
Tendency of search of food           			Appetite
Tendency of paternity                			Affection
Tendency of disgust                  			Hatred
Tendency of community feeling        		Community feeling
Tendency of copulation               			sex
Tendency of prejudice                			superiority
Tendency of inferiority complex     		Inferiority
Tendency of Earning                 			Ownership
Tendency of Creation                			Creativity
Tendency of begging                 			pity
Tendency of humor                   			pleasure

The   above  given  divisions  can  be  concised  in   three categories.
They are :

In the first group : Instinct of appetite, fear,  copulation and
possessiveness . These exist in every creature  of  the world.  An
instinct of appetite is found in all. On  account  of this  creature
feels hunger and searches for it. Really a big part of our life is
motivated by it. A number of behavior of a living being are activated
by fear. The feeling of getting hurt creates fear.  All creatures have
the instinct of copulation.  The fourth one is the instinct of
possessiveness exists in human beings as well as in animals.  They
collect their requirements and want to get more and  more things due to
this.

The  second  group of instincts : Anger, pride,  deceit  and greed. This
group of instincts also exists in all living  beings. But  in  man
they are well developed and  expressed.

The  first group  of instincts  is precursor  of activating these
instincts. For example when  a  person  gets hungry and if it is not
satisfies he becomes angry.  To earn money people use deceive methods.
Once you start earning greed sets in which may become the cause of
violences, corruptions, eetc. In this way it can be said that the
former group of instincts activate the later or both are correlated
with  each other.

The third group of instincts are:
Community  feeling  and individuality. The  most living beings  more or
less desire to live in a group.  Anthropologist Maxmullar  also accepts
this tendency. Not only  in human beings but  it  exists in animals
also.  The  consciousness of individuality are found in all the
animates. Every creature has some sort of distinguished
characteristics.

Origin of instincts:

Now  the  question arises what is responsible of outpouring of
instincts?  In this respect we illustrate internal and external causes.

Instinct of Appetite
Internal: 	due  to the rising of feeling and deluding karmas.
External: 	due to Emptiness of stomach
seeing food-stuffs
thinking about food constantly
smelling the flavor

Instinct of fear
Internal: deluding karmas
External: Inferiority complex
Visualizing fearful events
Continuous thinking about fear.

Instinct of copulation
Internal: deluding karmas
External: Strengthening of muscles and organs of the body
Listening or reading  the copulation connected
material. Constant thinking about it.

Instinct of possession :
Internal: deluding karmas
External: To have possession already
To listen about possession
To think about possession

In this way instincts of anger, pride etc., are also outpoured by
deluding  karmas and activated by  external situations.

Impressions of instincts:
They  are  not  only connected with our  feelings  but  with physical
and mental functioning structure also.  They  influence the  external
as well as internal functioning of the body.  Mental states and
feelings are also affected by them. We can understand them as

External changes    : Facial expressions
: Vocal expressions
: Physical posture and gesture
Internal changes    : States of the mind
: Feelings of the consciousness
: Psychological responses
: Nervous system
: Secretion of glands
: Chemistry of blood

The scientific approach:

For  a  long  time it was believed that the  brain  was  the source  of
energy and the seat of impulses of  man.  Significant progresses  in
endocrinology  (branch of  science  dealing  with endocrine  system) in
the recent years has established  that  the passions and expressions
affect the endocrine system.

Endocrine  system  is  the basis of  habit  formation  in  a person.
They  manifest  themselves in  the  Nervous  system  and becomes
behavioral pattern. Thus manifestation and behavior  are the  function
of the nervous system, but the birth place - the production  centre  of
 the instincts is  endocrine  system.  The endocrine  glands  control
through chemical regulators called hormones. They regulate the body
functions.  These chemical messengers exert  profound  influence on
the  mental states, emotions and behavioral patterns of an individual.
They are primary  movers which generate the powerful forces, all  the
instincts and urges, passions and emotions in man. These, in turn
generate feelings and results into action that satisfy the  needs of
love, hate, fear etc. are endocrines expressions. Therefore it is said
that endocrine system is the seat of the instincts from the gross point
of view but actually the karmas are responsible for the producing of
the instincts.

How the instincts can be changed?
Now  the  most  important  task  before  us  is  how   these instincts
and urges, impulses and feelings can be  pacified?  In this  context
you can be benefited by the  regular  practice  of special  technique
of preksha meditation. There are various methods available in this
field.  One of them is visualization of bright  white color at the
centre of enlightenment, that is in the middle  part  of  the
forehead.  If a person practises it constantly, he can control his
anger and increase his  power  of tolerance to a great extent. The
another significant process  of preksha meditation is perception of
deep breathing which helps to pacify the intensity of the instincts.
Therefore, regular practice of meditation develops balanced and an
integrated personality by decreasing the intensity of instincts.

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