JAINA Convention 1993 07 Pittusburgh

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

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skins or other body parts that are used to make jewelry and other accessories - and even folk medicine in the Orient Various animals kept as companions or pets come from a commercial pet trade that all caring people boycott by adopting animals instead from the local animal shelter. Many purebred puppies for sale in pet stores come from "puppy mill" factory farms that are often as cru- elly deplorable as livestock and poultry farm factories. Other more "exotic" pets, like parrots and other creatures caught in the wild, suffer high mortali- ties before they ever reach the pet shop. And they don't make good pets, since they have not been bred to adapt to captivity and to a domesticated existence. Animals also suffer in the name of sport and entertainment. Such activities and events, like trophy hunting and sport fishing, rodeos, horse races, animal cir- cuses, and roadside zoos, do not enjoy the support of those who have a vestige of empathy for animals wild and tame. These examples affirm my contention that until all such abusescease, the law of karma will ensure that society will continue to be dysfunctional and violent. Also, as society continues to treat ani- mals and the rest of creation with cruel indifference, we will continue to bring ecological and socio-economic catastrophes upon ourselves and upon the generations to come.
As consumers we can be empow. ered by the doctrine of ahimsa to choose wisely and with compassion. By so doing, we help undermine the economic basis and incentives that are the primary reasons for the continuation of so much animal cruelty and suffering. As voting citizens, we can support local, state and federal environmental and animal pro- tection legislation, and push for better enforcement of such laws.
tered that it leads us to have no regard for nature except as a resource: to have little or no compassion for animals and respect for the inherent value of all of Earth's creation. The evolution of species is deeply rooted in self-interest, from self-preservation to self-perpetuation. The evolutionary success of the human species is, however, turning into a scenario of tragic failure. This is in part due to the fact that our impact upon the planet has expanded globally, but this expansion has not been accompanied by a comparable expansion of our sense of self and responsibilities as a planetary species. We are the Earth, insofar as our selfhood or being is con- nected historically, ecologically, biologically and spiritually with theentire life community of the Earth.
This symbiotic life community, as Father Thomas Berry has proposed, is built upon a communion of subjects rather than upon a collection of objects. Within this community we find a sacrificial dimension where life gives to life in order to sustain the entire community, While we are physically, and to a degree unconsciously connected with this community, with the rocks, trees, waters, air, the food we eat, and so forth, we can become consciously connected with the life community through our ability to empathize: to put ourselves in another's place. Empathy connects and universalizes the self with the suffering, joy, wonder and mystery of all life. Without empathy, we become disconnected and relating objectively, turn the subjects of empathic communion and celebration into objects that we variously demean and exploit. In the process, we do no less to ourselves: And as we empty the cosmos of "interiority," of subjectivity, intrinsic value and significance, we do the same to ourselves and to each other. Healthy children have a natural capacity to empathize, a capacity that parents and others must nurture. But too often this essential attribute of our humanity is crushed, if not by parents, then by the
values and attitudes children acquire even in schools of learning and religious instruction.
Ethical sensibility arises naturally from empathic sensitivity. The absence of empathy means the absence of ethical sensibility, which in turn necessitates the imposition of law and order and often blind (un feeling) obedience to moral codes. As Lao Tzu said some 3,000 years ago, "When the way of harmony (empathy) was lost, then there was morality, law, knowledge and great pretence."
In order to help ensure that this abil. ity to empathize becomes integrated with the ethical and spiritual percepts of the community, many preindustrial civilizations carefully nurtured and educated their children, especially through example and initiation rituals. Initiation rituals were designed to reintegrate the developing sense of self (our adolescent egos) with both the "unconscious" side of our natures and with the ecos or natural world and life community around us. Unintegrated, the adolescent human ego is a terribly selfish and potentially destructive force. A fully integrated human consciousness (and conscience) isa developmental state wherein the ego self is perceived as being one with the eco- or universal self as life in life. This is the only basis for a humane, sustainable and socially just society.
When the Earth is poisoned and its ecology dysfunctional, human health and a functional society are unattainable ideals. To heal ourselves, therefore, we must heal the planet, and to heal the planet we must heal ourselves. But nothing will be well until we show respect and compassion toward our fellow creatures, otherwise injustice and inhumanity will continue to ravage every human community around the world that sees itself somehow superior to and separate from the rest of creation.
Developmental and Educational
Considerations
Our self-interest can be so self-cen
"The time will come when men will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."
-Leonardo da Vinci
7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION - JULY 1993