Book Title: ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02
Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies
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Those who came up with these spiritual cures had human weakness and foibles in mind and advised us to react to anger generating stimuli with a compassionate heart and an attitude of forgive and forget. The following Biblical passage and Jain composition on forgiveness express a similar thought:
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving. (Ephesians 4:31)
I forgive all souls, may all souls forgive me, I am on friendly terms with all, I have enmity towards none. (Translation of Khamemi Savva Jive.... Jain Scripture)
Arrogance Arrogance is probably a more destructive human emotion than anger because the latter at least needs an external catalyst, while arrogance does not. We can hide the anger, but arrogance is apparent to all around us. Anger in many cases is transient in nature and it may subside in due course and may be easy to forget and forgive, but arrogance is an ongoing phenomenon fueling fire on a continual basis.
An arrogant person is constantly occupied in boosting his own ego and does not hesitate to employ devious means to earn undue respect, prestige or salutations.
If we study the history of mankind, we will find that it is replete with stories of people who fell from grace or were destroyed or ruined by arrogance. Here is a short story from Greek Mythology:
Icarus- main character of the story- arrogantly believed that he could fly with artificial wings, his arrogance lead to his literal downfall, however, as he flew so close to the sun that the wax with which his wings were fastened melted. In Western philosophy and literature, this story of Icarus is considered to be the classic example of arrogance.
I know of a major US corporation that was doing very well for years. They copied a competitive product to grow even faster. The competitor claimed that the product infringed
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
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