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ALTERNATIVES TO LEATHER
Instead of buying leather clothing, fashion accessories or footwear, look for goods made with microfiber, pleather, synthetic, imitation or artificial leather, or all human-made materials. Artisans are now using “vegan leather” (artificial, plant-based non-leather) in purses and jackets in a wide and gorgeous array. Alternately, you can opt for products made of cotton, linen, rubber, ramie, canvas, and chlorenol. If you buy and use leather products, please do see this short film: http://www.jainsamaj.org/magazines/ahimsatimesshow. php?id=368 Now you decide: is this behavior consistent with ahimsa?
THE USE OF SILK: SHOULD I USE REAL SILK AND SILK PRODUCTS? Before I delve deeper into this topic, let me define a few commonly used terms. • Silk Factory: It is a slaughterhouse of three-sensed insects.
The generally understood slaughterhouse that we all understand is for five-sensed non-human beings, but a silk factory by all definition is also a slaughterhouse. In fact, a silk factory is a much bigger slaughterhouse because here practically infinite numbers of three-sensed insects are
slaughtered to satisfy some human's wants, not needs. • Dealers in real silk: These are the dealers of products from
slaughterhouses (silk factory). • Users of real silk in all reality are nothing but users of the
meat coming out of theses slaughterhouses. The above is a reality. No sugar coating or different terminologies can change or hide the reality. Unfortunately a significant number of Jains (of all ages and both genders) engage in the above in some combination.
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An Ahimsa Crisis: You Decide
