ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 02

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

Page 210

1. The nature of self.
2. The goal of human pursuance.
3. The doctrine of Karma.
4. The meaning of spiritual awakening (Samyagdarśana).
5. The incentives to spiritual life.
6. The spiritual perspective of Ahimsa
7. The practice of devotion.
8. The observance of Sallekhana as the spiritual welcome to death.
9. The stages of spiritual development known as Gūnasthānas.
10. Moral practices like Aṇūvrata, Mahāvrata etc.
INTERNATIO
SCHOOL
OF
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
SELF STUDY IS THE
SUPREME AUSTERITY
Farenga
words, how Jainism has occupied itself with religious outlook? The answer can be searched in delineating.
ESTUDIES
2.1 Ethics
Now the question is: Is ethics possible without religion in Jainism? According to Jainism those who are not spiritually awakened can lead a moral life. Thus in Jainism ethical living is possible without religious living. The equivalent expression in Jaina ethics for the term 'right' and 'good' is Subha. We all know that ethics deals with right and wrong, good and bad. Here the question that confronts us is this: How to determine according to Jainism, what is morally right for a certain agent in a certain situation? Or what is the criterion of the rightness of action? The interrelated question is what we ought to do in a certain situation or how duty is to be determined? The answer of Jaina ethics is that right, ought and duty cannot be separated from the good.
2.2 Teleological Theory of Right Accepted in Jaina Ethics
The criterion of what is right etc. is the greater balance of good over bad that is brought into being than any alternative. Thus, the view that regards goodness of the consequences of actions as the right-making characteristic is termed the teleological theory of right as distinguished from the deontological theory of right which regards an action as right simply because of its own nature regardless of the consequences it may bring into being. The Jaina ethics holds the teleological theory of right (Maximum balance of Ahimsa over himsä as the right-making characteristic).
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