Across families

Jainism and Samkhya-Yoga

Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.16 (0 would be identical).

JainismIndic

No creator, no grace, no shortcut: the soul frees itself by not harming, and the discipline required is the most demanding in the matrix. Its doctrine of many-sidedness makes it simultaneously the most epistemically pluralist tradition here.

Samkhya-YogaHinduism

A dualism of consciousness and nature in which liberation is the disentangling of the two, achieved by a precisely specified discipline. God is an optional element — Samkhya proper does without one — which puts A1 unusually low for the family.

Where they agree

C2 Shape of time
Both sit at cyclical return — a gap of 0.02.
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.03.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning impersonal principle or order — a gap of 0.03.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at continues in some form — a gap of 0.06.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.06.
D3 The body
Both sit at to be disciplined — a gap of 0.07.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound and ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.10.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at leaning many valid paths — a gap of 0.10.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at beginningless or natural — a gap of 0.10.
B3 Institutional authority
Both sit at leaning clergy and tradition decide — a gap of 0.10.

Where they part company

E4 Standing of nature
Jainism: animate and itself sacred. Samkhya-Yoga: between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred. A gap of 0.44 on an axis running from “creation, given for use” to “animate and itself sacred”.

All seventeen axes

Axis	Jainism	Samkhya-Yoga	Gap
A1 Divine reality	between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists	between nothing beyond the natural and a divine reality certainly exists	0.03
A2 Personhood	leaning impersonal principle or order	leaning impersonal principle or order	0.03
A3 Plurality	between strictly one and many powers and spirits	leaning strictly one	0.13
A4 Locus	leaning fully present within it	between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it	0.32
B1 Source of truth	between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience	leaning reason and direct experience	0.34
B2 Reading of sacred text	leaning literal and binding	between literal and binding and metaphorical, or no text at all	0.26
B3 Institutional authority	leaning clergy and tradition decide	leaning clergy and tradition decide	0.10
C1 Survival of the self	continues in some form	continues in some form	0.06
C2 Shape of time	cyclical return	cyclical return	0.02
C3 The human condition	leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound	ignorant but fundamentally sound	0.10
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good	achieved by effort or insight	achieved by effort or insight	0.06
D2 Centrality of ritual	leaning essential and prescribed	between essential and prescribed and optional or absent	0.20
D3 The body	to be disciplined	to be disciplined	0.07
E1 Exclusivity	leaning many valid paths	leaning many valid paths	0.10
E2 Origin of the cosmos	beginningless or natural	beginningless or natural	0.10
E3 Locus of belonging	between a people, inherited and an individual choice	leaning an individual choice	0.36
E4 Standing of nature	animate and itself sacred	between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred	0.44

Positions for Jainism rest principally on Tattvartha Sutra and the Jain Agamas; for Samkhya-Yoga, on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the Samkhyakarika. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.

Which of the two is closer to you?

The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.