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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
constantly in agreement with right vision or intuition, right knowledge and right (i.e. nonviolent) conduct. While practicing meditation a yogi has to abandon mentally all his possessions. He or she should purify him or herself by abandoning every aversion or attachment which may lead to degradation of thoughts.
The Jains reject tantric meditations, because they involve harm being done to other beings and sometimes sexual passion and the taking of alcohol and drugs. Moreover they reject any practice that leads to the forcible acquisition of powers or selfish accomplishments. Jain meditation is only directed towards wisdom and purity.
Jains, lay people as well as sworn clergymen and women, attach very great importance to vegetarianism. Every real Jain is a strict vegetarian, i.e. including eggs and fish, and for the practice of yoga and meditation it is an absolute condition. Meditation depends on the direction the mind chooses. Usually our mental activities during daily life are not very spiritual and we pay most of our attention to what will bring satisfaction to the senses. Such enjoyments may be at the expense of other living beings with which we share our world. This is the only cause why the eating of meat was ever introduced by humankind. Curiosity has even induced certain people to eat the flesh of other people. Such creatures can no longer be called human – they are beasts on two legs. It is the duty as humans to be fundamentally human or humane because our minds are superior to those of all other creatures. Because humans are the most advanced creatures on earth, they should never break the laws of nature for any selfish purpose. The biological constitution of the human body is both anatomically and physiologically that of a vegetarian. He has however imitated the for humans unlawful act of meateating and hunting from dogs etc., and even though humanity claims to have made progress in civilization, it has in reality made a step backwards. According to the Indians, humans were vegetarians originally, whether the first man was called Adam or Rasul, and that remained the case for long periods
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