Attachment and aversion are the root cause of karma, and karma originates from infatuation. Karma is the root cause of birth and death, and these are said to be the source of misery. None can escape the effect of their own past karma.
Interpretation
This quote highlights how our attachments and aversions lead to karma, which in turn causes suffering through the cycle of life and death.
In this quote, Mahavira emphasizes the interconnectedness of attachment, aversion, and karma. He explains that our emotional ties and dislikes create karma, which shapes our experiences in life, including birth and death. The suffering we endure stems from this cycle of karma, suggesting that understanding and transcending our attachments can lead to liberation from misery. Ultimately, the quote serves as a reminder that one cannot escape the consequences of their past actions, urging us to reflect on our choices and their effects.
In practice
During a philosophy discussion about the causes of suffering.
If one undertakes retrospection of the day's events, one must do it regularly at the appointed hour, not fitfully, not doing it today, neglecting to do it tomorrow and the day after and then taking it up again on the fourth day. Such irregular practice is not conducive to the confirmation of the habit of retrospection.
If you want to cultivate a habit, do it without any reservation, till it is firmly established. Until it is so confirmed, until it becomes a part of your character, let there be no exception, no relaxation of effort.
Start the practice of self-control with some penance; begin with fasting.
Anger begets more anger, and forgiveness and love lead to more forgiveness and love.
Modes are infinite, and laws are infinite.
Eating constitutes the greatest obstacle to self-control; it gives rise to indolence.
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
One half of my head, from the top of my skull to the cleft of my jaw, hammers, bangs, sizzles while the other half, serene and content, looks on at the agony next door.
Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.
Ive walked a lot in the mountains in Iceland. And as you come to a new valley, as you come to a new landscape, you have a certain view. If you stand still, the landscape doesnt necessarily tell you how big it is. It doesnt really tell you what youre looking at. The moment you start to move the mountain starts to move.
Worshiping someone means...placing that person outside of our world. We are not worshiping anyone or anything, we are simply communing with Creation.
One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.
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