ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 34

are not only religious and spiritual angles, but also ethical, emotional, nutritional and health promotional aspects.
Vegetarianism has the potential of shaping a more balanced life style, and promoting more judicious use of available food resources. Vegetarianism has the emotional and ethical perspective, environmental perspective and health perspective.
The sight of slaughterhouses could make one realise the ordeal of the animal being slaughtered for human consumption. The intense feeling of horror, anger, hurt, pain and suffering goes into the meat of freshly killed animals. When eaten such meat could shape in the emotional fibers of human beings a psychology of callousness, anger, revenge, hate, disgust and intolerance.
The environmental aspect is among other things, related to the rapid extinction of many species at the rate of almost 1000 species a year. This is seriously disturbing the life system pattern. A vegetarian diet becomes an integral part of human intake (āhāra) of what is simultaneously nourishing for the body as well as a tonic for the soul. It becomes an element in the spiritual uplift of human beings while serving to satisfy their appetite as well as taste buds.
1.8 Conclusion As a humanitarian and compassionate philosophy, Jain religion has the potential of attracting universal appeal. The religious doctrines and rituals are for the adherents of the religion to follow. However, Jain principles have an abiding relevance for shaping global human values in the right direction of promoting stable inner and outer peace, well preserved environment, climate of tolerance and accommodation, attitude of restraint and detachment, psychology of compassion and piety and above all a non-violent world free from not only the destructive and terrorizing violence, but also the stress, tension, hostility and hatred that it
arouses.
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
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