Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s8.t3.6

v1.c7.s8.t3.6

Sankhya holds the opinion that Samsara is produced by the combination of material entity - Prakriti and spiritual entity - Purusha. Liberation is escaping from the world of Samsara full of pain. The way to be free from pain is to prevent their combination. Yoga thinks that the process producing life or everything in the Samsara is painful. The cause of suffering is the combination of the observer and the observed. Achieving “Samadhi” through the practice of yoga can eradicate all troubles and ungodliness to obtain liberation. Vaisesika thought that Samsara is the combination of “Atman” and the body, which results from the ‘invisible force”. Invisible force is generated by man’s good and evil behaviours. If there is no invisible force, there is also no combination of “Atman” and the body. When the Samsara is over, people will get liberated. Nyaya believes that liberation is to get rid of the pain in Samsara. Samsara is the existence of life form. The emergence of the form is connected with the karma produced by human behaviour, and karma relates to mistaken understanding. In order to eliminate the mistaken understanding, people shall get the correct knowledge. In the view of Nyaya, the correct knowledge is related to man’s appropriate reasoning and debate, as well as thinking method. And such knowledge mainly exists in the theoretical system of Nyaya’s “16 truths” (16 basic concepts involving rules of reasoning and debate). By knowing 16 truths, people can eliminate the mistaken understanding to reach the state of “highest good”, namely, liberation.