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The Jain explanation may preserve a permanent self by distinguishing essence from conditioned modes, but Buddhism sees that move as unnecessary and still vulnerable, because changing experience can be explained through dependent processes without positing
In Jain दर्शन, the jīva is accepted as a real, eternal substance, while its paryāyas (conditioned modes) keep changing. So Jainism does not say the self is a fixed, unchanging experience-stream; rather, it says:
- Dravya = the enduring substance
- Paryāya = the changing states, qualities, and manifestations
Because of this, Jainism holds that continuity of the soul does not require denying change. Change is already explained through the soul’s own modes, together with karma’s influence. The soul remains the same jīva across transformations, just as a lamp can stay one lamp while its flame varies.
From a Jain standpoint, this is not an unnecessary addition but a necessary truth: without a real enduring jīva, liberation, bondage, responsibility, and karmic fruition lose their foundation.
So the Jain view is not “an enduring soul behind changing experience” in a crude sense, but an eternal conscious substance expressed through changing modes.
