Introduction to Jainism

Author(s): Rudi Jansma, Sneh Rani Jain
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 53

AHIMSA
exist any longer once humankind understands and then practice non-violence. It would not mean that humanity would have nothing to learn anymore or would be freed from all despair, or that tigers would suddenly eat grass. But at present we make things much more difficult for ourselves than is necessary. Instead of regarding each other as territorial and personal competitors, people would understand that they are brother pilgrims on the path to truth and unstained happiness, who know that the pilgrimage is long and often hard, but who everywhere and always are on each other's side. For many people this is already the case even in our times. It sounds almost sentimental - "unpractical” – yet this is the only thing of real importance in life, the only true discipline around which life revolves: the practice of brotherhood. The brotherhood of all beings which have consciousness. Rules are not necessary to accomplish this, but listening to one's heart certainly is.
Religions teach that every consciousness reaps what it has sown. From this it follows that “violence one cannot avoid” such as natural disasters, disease and damage inflicted by someone else, can be referred back to oneself - the neglect of this deep impulse from the heart. We should recognize that our repeated existences on earth are but a small part or our total life cycle. Most of our time we spend outside our physical bodies in the hereafter or the “herebefore” either as hellish or as heavenly beings, say the Jains. The so-called hells or heavens are states of consciousness which are the result of our thinking during our stay in physical bodies. As a result of its weakness or attachment the soul is not willing to make choices, and oscillates continuously between high and low, good and bad. In this way a vibration is created through which confusion and ignorance are attracted and attached to the soul, thus making matters still more difficult. If one has the courage to choose the higher – absolute inner nonviolence - the weakness and doubt causing the vibrations disappear. Then God will turn out to be all forgiveness and love, as a Christian might express it. The soul is the only true god