Jain Spirit 2002 03 No 10

SR No.: 528990
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 62
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, UK_Jain Spirit, & UK
File Size: 15 MB

Page 49

ENVIRONMENT
WAR BEGINS AT HOME
Ingrid Newkirk explains how little actions make large differences
opened my eyes by showing
AST WEEK, IN WASHINGTON, ON THE SHUTTLE BUS TO THE The consequences of not giving appropriate moral airport, three men sat talking about the World Trade guidance to little brothers and sisters, to our own children,
Centre attack. They said all the usual things about the can be enormous. As one law enforcement official said, "It horror of needless violence and the slaughter of the innocent. is not a case of how many violent criminals on death row Then their conversation shifted to a hunting expedition they have a history of childhood violence towards animals. It is had been on recently. A bear hunt in Tennessee. Their mood a question of how many do not!" When parents fail to became light and they laughed as they recalled their adventures. correct children who do nasty things to animals, there may "Boom," said one of them, recounting the death of a big bear. I be hell to pay later. To take extreme cases, in the US serial couldn't help but wonder if they were passing their confusing killers from Jeffrey Dahmer (who began by enjoying stand on violence on to their siblings or children at home. dissection in school, then moved on to decapitating his
I remember being called to a house in the country one neighbours' cats) to the school shooters (children who winter by a distraught child. The little boy had witnessed a man enjoyed guns and hunting squirrels and deer) who "took it staying in his house kill the beloved family cat. The man had. out" on the teachers and classmates who angered them, all quite literally, got up on the wrong side of the bed, the side "got away with murder" and then went on to need ever where a cat was sitting, peacefully minding his own business. greater displays of power over the helpless to make them The man was angry about something that
feel important. Had the hunters on had nothing to do with the cat, but when
the shuttle bus ever been admonished the cat "said hello" in the way cats do, by "In my youth animals for dismissing animals interests? brushing up against his leg, the man took
All violence is like laundry his temper out on the poor animal. He
boiling in a single cauldron. Western kicked the cat in the kidneys, then picked
society particularly, with its him up and threw him down the stairs. me how loyal, vulnerable seductions and excesses, calls out to Finally, he kicked the cat out into the
us as the sirens called out to Ulysses. snow to die. The child had witnessed it and joyful they are." Ulysses had to strap himself to his
ship's mast to avoid being dragged It was too late to save the cat but I
onto the rocks by the beguilingly had to do something to try to curb the man's potential for future beautiful, alluring sounds. Today's sirens try to get us to violence and to show the boy that people don't get away with embrace what Lord Mahavir called "our inner enemy". To doing such things to defenceless individuals, man or mouse, cat get us to take that blanket made of greedy thoughts and or child. I charged the man with criminal cruelty and brought behaviours that we can use to pull over our eyes when we him before court.
want to keep out the light of truth and compassion. Yet, if Now, the only witness was the seven-year-old child. It was we strap ourselves to the mast of Jain values, we can avoid his word against that of the 40-year-old man. The judge knew temptations like the prettily presented flesh of cruelly that this was a dilemma and brought the child up to the bench. slaughtered animals. Life is hardly worth living for the sake The judge wanted to see if the boy truly knew the difference of crude indulgences! When Robert Graves was asked why between right and wrong. Satisfied, the judge allowed the lad he wrote beautiful poetry when there is no money in to testify. The killer was convicted.
poetry", he replied, "[But there's no poetry in money, When we are children, we can be excused for doing things either!" In the same way, there may be no money in simply because we feel like doing them, even if those acts hurt morality, but there is certainly no poorer life than one lived others. Parents are there to teach children the art of self- without virtue. discipline, the business of contemplating the effect of one's Last month, I went to a beautiful wedding in Virginia. words and deeds. In the case of the cat the shoe was on the Outside in the garden we watched the bride and groom take other foot: it was the child who could distinguish right from their vows, and then off we went into the warm tent to eat wrong and the grown man failed to control his emotions. It was the vegan dishes the bride's parents had carefully chosen for the man who violated the tenet of Sayam (restraint). Like the the party. There were grape leaves wrapped about men who shot the bear for fun, he had not factored the feelings marinated rice, there was hummus and tabouli, translucent of another life form into his personal equation.
Chinese bean thread rolls containing delicious vegetables
all.
48
Jain Spirit . March - May 2002