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Carve Your Own Destiny
HUGUES SERVE
A Shvetambara monk. Jain monks are role models for simple and ascetic living Let there be end of suffering and end of karmas;
So much of what you say leaves one with an impression that May my death be attended by mindfulness,
Jainism is almost entirely concerned with the "Self". Yet in and may I attain enlightenment,
other religions forgetting about yourself is what is most O Brother of the Universe, Jina!
attractive to me. That you yourself are a problem to yourself, for I have taken refuge in you.
That lovely Christian phrase for instance, "Lord, I am Surely, this is not so much a prayer as an aspiration to reach some restless until I rest in Thee." Now all that seems to be lacking day the same goal as achieved by the Jinas. Christians say prayers from Jainism. but they do not aspire to be Christ themselves, and the Hindu I think you are right to some extent. Yes, the Jain teachers are devotees for the most part seek union with their Lord. The concept saying to their followers that they should take care of of assimilation into a higher spirit is not acceptable to the Jains. A themselves, because by doing so, they have taken care of the soul maintains autonomy at all times and all are equal when they world as well. When a person refrains from acts of hurting by reach the state of emancipation or salvation (moksha).
the vow of ahimsa he has saved other beings also from reacting
in a hostile manner. He knows that he has full control only You said you don't pray for material wealth, for good luck or for over his own thoughts and actions, and must find his peace in grace either, because you don't need grace. But of course one of himself, for the source of pacification is not outside. the things which other religions do get to pray for is grace for the strength to follow, which in your case would be sto follow the Jainism, and you yourself, believe very strongly that there is Jain path.
a very great strength of truth that runs through all religions. Well, let me correct a little. I did say that the Jains will not pray for One such strength of truth to me is the common goal of the worldly things in front of the Jinas's images. However, there are mystic. When you read mystic writings in Hinduism, in indeed celestial gods and goddesses, (vaksha or yakshinis) seen as Islam, in Christianity, you find that they are seeking the same the guardian spirits of the main shrine, whom the laity may goal. But in Jainism mysticism seems to be absent. propitiate for worldly needs. But the true strength of a Jain | Well, the kind of mysticism you see in the above religions aspirant lies in his own self. There is a firm belief that each soul comes partly through the search for the other, mainly the has a certain amount of this innate quality of strength, which when Divine, the Transcendent Being, with which the mystic seeks exerted with the knowledge of the self, enables it to overcome the union or a return in some form to the Creator. In Jainism, as I bonds of passions. This inner strength of the soul is wasted or said earlier, there is no concept of a Higher Being, let alone any scattered away by association with external things. By cutting loss of individuality of a soul by merging in that Being. The these bonds even with one's body, a person can detach oneself human teachers (Jinas) at the end of their lives have achieved from all that is not self and thus become a true ascetic.
total liberation (moksha) and are no longer available for any
March - May 2002. Jain Spirit
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