Ratnatraya, the Three Jewels
Right faith, right knowledge, right conduct. Together they are the path to moksha; separately, none of them is.
Foundations
3 min read
Vijay K. Jain, Tattvarthsutra, CC0 1.0. Converted to WebP.
The opening sutra
The Tattvarth Sutra, the one text both Jain traditions accept in full, opens with a single line that defines the whole path.
सम्यग्दर्शनज्ञानचारित्राणि मोक्षमार्गः
Samyag-darśana-jñāna-cāritrāṇi mokṣa-mārgaḥ
Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct are the path to liberation.
Read the line carefully and one thing stands out. The word marg, path, is singular. Three jewels, one path. They are not three alternative routes and not three stages to be completed in turn; they are three aspects of one condition, and a soul that has any of them properly has all three.
Right faith
Samyak darshan is usually translated as right faith, which is misleading if faith is taken to mean belief without evidence. What is meant is closer to right seeing: the moment a soul stops mistaking the body for itself and sees its own nature accurately.
It is placed first because it changes what the other two are worth. Knowledge acquired by a soul that has not seen rightly is still information, and conduct performed by such a soul is still activity, but neither is yet moving toward liberation. The Jain texts are blunt about this: the same study and the same austerity count for nothing until samyak darshan is present.
Right knowledge
Samyak jnana is understanding of the soul and of everything that is not the soul, held without three specific defects: doubt, mistaking one thing for another, and being unable to decide.
Notice that quantity is not the test. A person may have read every scripture and still lack right knowledge, and a person of modest learning may possess it. What matters is whether what is known is known correctly, and whether it is known about the right subject, which is the soul.
Right conduct
Samyak charitra is conduct that matches what has been seen and understood. In practice it means the five vows, taken in full by ascetics as mahavratas and in limited measure by householders as anuvratas, together with restraint of the senses and the mind.
Why all three, always
The classical illustration is a sick person and a medicine. Believing the medicine works is faith. Knowing which medicine and what dose is knowledge. Actually taking it is conduct. Any two without the third leave the illness exactly where it was.
Terms on this page
- Samyak darshanसम्यक् दर्शन
- Right faith. Seeing reality as it actually is, rather than as habit and desire present it. The first jewel, and the one the other two depend on.
- Samyak jnanaसम्यक् ज्ञान
- Right knowledge. Accurate understanding of the soul and what is not the soul, free of doubt, error and indecision.
- Samyak charitraसम्यक् चारित्र
- Right conduct. Living in accordance with what has been rightly seen and rightly understood.
- Moksha margमोक्ष मार्ग
- The path to liberation. Defined in the opening sutra of the Tattvarth Sutra as the three jewels taken together, not as any one of them.
Common questions
Do the three jewels have to be acquired in order?
They are listed in an order of dependence, not an order of acquisition. Right faith is named first because without it the other two do not count toward liberation, but the three arise together and deepen together.