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What are the Three Jewels of Jainism?
And How Can I Apply them in Everyday Life?
09/08/2026
The three jewels (ratna-traya) of Jainism are correct worldview, correct knowledge, and correct conduct. Together they concisely summarize the path to liberation. But what do they mean, how do they fit together in Jain philosophy, and how can I apply them in everyday life?
The 5th c. CE Tattvārtha Sūtra (though not yet explicitly identifying “three jewels”) makes this much clear in its first verse: “The path to liberation is correct worldview, correct knowledge, and correct conduct” (saṃyag-darśana-jñāna-cāritrāṇi mokṣa-mārgaḥ | TS 1.1). These three items will later be identified by Jain authors as the “three jewels”.
As Paul Dundas once asserted, in addition to their faith in the Jinas, most all Jains, at a minimum, “act according to their teaching of the Three Jewels” (2002: 3). For this reason, the three jewels are of critical importance in engaged Jain studies.
Correct Worldview
The first jewel, correct worldview (saṃyag-darśana), “is associated with trusting in the Objects of Truth” (TS 1.2). The Objects of Truth (tattvārtha) are seven, and include:
1) Self (jīva)
2) Not-Self (ajīva)
3) Inflow of Karma (āsrava)
4) Binding of Karma (bandha)
5) Stopping Karma’s Inflow (saṃvara)
6) Wearing Away of Karma (nirjarā)
7) Liberation (mokṣa)
Correct worldview arises in two different ways. First, spontaneously (nisargāt) in any form of life when: the painful nature of life shows itself, when one experiences the vision of a Jina, when one hears the teachings of the Jina, or when one remembers a previous life. Or second, from study (adhigama) of Jain scriptures (TS 1.3).
How would you know if someone has correct worldview? Calmness, compassion, distaste for life in the world, and an unshakeable belief in reincarnation are the clearest indications (TS 1.2). And when someone possesses correct worldview, it becomes the cause for the second and third jewel, correct knowledge and correct conduct.
Correct Knowledge
Correct knowledge (saṃyag-jñāna) is accumulated on the Jain path toward liberation. There are five types of knowledge (jñāna) and two means of acquiring it (pramāṇa) (TS 1.9-1.10).
The first two types of knowledge, empirical knowledge (mati-jñāna) and knowledge from testimony (śruta-jñāna), are indirect (parokṣa-pramāṇa), since karma inhibits direct cognition (TS 1.12). Empirical knowledge comes through the senses, while knowledge from testimony is acquired through language (TS 1.9) and scriptures containing the Jina’s teachings (TS 1.12).
The last three types of knowledge: clairvoyance (avadhi-jñāna), mind reading (manaḥparyāya-jñāna), and omniscience (kevala-jñāna), are directly acquired (pratyakṣa-pramāṇa) (TS 1.10) when an ascetic’s karma is suppressed or eliminated (TS 1.12). Clairvoyance involves acquiring knowledge that is normally outside the range of one’s senses (TS 1.9). Mind reading involves perceiving the objects of someone else’s mind (TS 1.9). Finally, omniscience includes knowledge of all substances in all of their possible modes in the past, present, and future (TS 1.9) as a result of the elimination of all of one’s karma through ascetic practice (TS 1.12). Empirical knowledge, knowledge from testimony, and knowledge from clairvoyance can be either enlightened or deluded while knowledge acquired from mind reading and omniscience is always enlightened and connected with purity.
Correct Conduct
Finally, correct conduct (saṃyak-cāritra) indicates that one has adopted the vows (vrata) of ahiṃsā, aparigraha, etc. into their life. As the seven tattvas associated with the correct worldview become “Real” for a spiritual person, and as they accumulate more knowledge, they are naturally inclined to act accordingly. That is, one refrains to the greatest extent possible from causing harm or attachment so as not to accrue more karma (and to eventually wear away the karma that has clung to their soul).
How can we apply the three jewels in everyday life?
First, one must accept the reality that when we cause harm to others, both human and non-human, as well as the environment and the climate, that this harm is bound to come back to us at some point. The same is true for all the good and compassion that we extend to the world. As a Jain, one must accept that karma is therefore real, has consequences for better or for worse, but also that the inflow of karma of all kinds can be stopped and ultimately eradicated. If one can accept this according to the seven objects of reality (tattvas) previously noted, one has correct worldview.
Second, one must do all that they can to acquire correct knowledge, empirically through the senses as well as through the study of Jain scriptures. For example, empirical knowledge of climate change is best captured through the instruments and methods used by modern science. And the empirical, peer-reviewed data collected and publicly disseminated through climate science makes it abundantly clear that what we eat, how we travel, and how we consume energy and resources make some of the largest direct impacts on our greenhouse gas emissions.
Thirdly, in light of this data, one must alter their behavior to resemble the correct conduct that would lead to a reduction in the violence their actions cause. Forgoing the products of animal agriculture, traveling by sustainable means, and consuming less energy (especially the most harmful forms of energy) would be a big start toward this goal of reducing one’s direct (kṛta) and indirect (kārita) harmful contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, and would also signal that one does not approve (anumata) of the structures that keep these harmful, climate-destructive enterprises in place.
Conclusion
We have carefully analyzed the contents of the Tattvārtha Sūtra’s presentation of correct worldview, correct knowledge, and correct conduct – what are later identified in the Jain tradition as the three jewels – and applied them in a contemporary context using the example of climate change.
While we can see that Jain teachings are clearly still applicable in the twenty-first century, we should also take note of the fact that Jain scriptures, and the Tattvārtha Sūtra itself, were written in an entirely different time and context. So, while most would accept that the teachings of nonviolence and compassion are perennially relevant, what would one do with the idea found in Jain scriptures that the world is flat and that there are said to be two suns and two moons encircling Mount Meru at its center, for example? Such assertions, though considered “correct knowledge” in the Tattvārtha Sūtra and elsewhere – and based on the omniscience of the Jinas – are no longer tenable in light of the findings of modern science.
Jains have adapted many strategies for addressing these and other epistemic frictions, which scholars of Jainism have elucidated elsewhere (Auckland 2016). Part of the project of engaged Jain studies involves grappling with these irreconcilable epistemic frictions, not to try to resolve them, but to acknowledge them, learn from them, and ask ourselves what they mean in light of Jain identity and practice in the twenty-first century.
Join us at Claremont School of Theology in the Engaged Jain Studies graduate program, including the MA and upcoming PhD in Engaged Jain Studies, where we confront these and other epistemic frictions in a global scholarly community.
References
Aukland, Knut. 2016. “The Scientization and Academization of Jainism”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 84, Issue 1, March 2016, Pages 192–233, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfv058.
Dundas, Paul. 2002. The Jains. Routledge.
Tatia, Nathmal. 2011. That Which is: Tattvārtha Sūtra. Yale University Press.
Christopher Jain Miller, is the co-founder, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute. He completed his PhD in the study of Religion at the University of California, Davis and is also a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut and Adjunct Professor at Claremont School of Theology where he co-developed and co-runs the fully-online MA-Engaged Jain Studies graduate program and the upcoming Doctor of Philosophy in Engaged Jain Studies track.