JAINA Convention 1993 07 Pittusburgh

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

Page 29

not suffer. That they should not give more than what is necessary."
Elsewhere, at a temple outside the city of Indore, a Digambara monk spoke to a group of school children. In his firm and easy style, seated akimbo, his little broom of peacock feathers to his side, he said,
"Twenty-two years ago I took the vow of nudity. Extraordinary as it may appear to you, nudity has become natural to us... We do not possess anything whatsoever and we do not have to tell people to likewise give up their worldly possessions. Our example itself conveys the fact that here is a man who can be happy without having or wanting anything." (He smiled and his eye caught my eye. The contagion of his words had already impressed me to a great extent. The thought of his total freedom, unencumbered self, impassioned disinterest, all set my own heart pounding. I wanted that freedom.) He went on to say: "It is important to see that what hurts himself also must hurt others and what gives happiness to others alone can give happiness to himself. It is ahimsa that makes for friendship between father and son, and love between husband and wife. With these words, I bless you. May the whole world remain in peace."
He'd spoken of love and of family. His ultimate asceticism the living, breathing embodiment, for example, of a St. Francis did not in the least affect his ability to commend the ordinary connections which most people assert to be the basis of their being. Yet he had converted those passions into an ascetic imperative with respect to non-violence. And he had done so with no particular play on words or subtlety. He was naked before us and such frankness, such total clarity was empowering. It made enormous sense.
I was swayed by these men in more ways than I can hope to enumerate today. Like so many other Jain monks I have encountered throughout India,
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these two were the ultimate inspiration to both children and adults; the equivalent, in my eyes, of so many Nobel Prize-winners for Peace, for Ecology; enduring symbols of gentleness; never imposing, never interfering. Simply trying to let nature be, walking, spreading the message of peace from village to village. Young Jains today seeking remedies for the world's pending ecological crises need look no further than their own innertraditions, their communities, their heritage. For it is there that Jainism has been quietly working its doctrines into the heart of the life force for millennia.
I spoke earlier of the psychoanalysis of "two minutes." That syndrome is also at the heart of the ecological movement. Jains have taught me to perceive human beings as a collective island of faith, a bastion of conscience harboring the mechanism for spreading comfort amongst all living creatures. As one more species, we may indulge in selfserving soliloquy and tired diatribe, tossing out platitudes and statistics ad infinitum. We are superb catastrophe connoisseurs. Gifted postponers. But if we are prepared to truly take nature and human nature seriously, then we must ultimately agree that compassion is the most appropriate form of behavior on this planet. We possess a singular capacity for healing a wounded world. We are the shepherds, the Dr. Dolittle's of every neighborhood, the remedy. We need only affirm it to be so.
As a viable model for ecological thinking, Jainism promotes a constant expansion of the limits of compassion. Step by step; day by day; at each instance, at every new opportunity. Jainism is not about miracles, or heroism, but practical solutions. The first solution takes place in an individual's soul, the most perilous of battlefields. Until you have won the battle, have gotten your own inner house in order, there is no point trying to help out your neighbor. But once you can reach out to a lit
tle timid mouse or rat with compassion, it is a small leap to caring for several thousand homeless, several hundred-thousand refugees, or one's employees. Or, for that matter, to initiate a Green Peace or a World Wildlife Fund, a PETA or an Earth First! petition at your school, or around your block. Indeed, the oldest extant Jain canonical work, the Acaranga Sutra, makes it quite clear that "...a wise man should not act sinfully towards animals, nor cause others to act so, nor allow others to act so." This latter exhortation - "nor allow others to act so" - simply stated, opens up whole worlds of decisive, non-violent responsibility. This activism is too easily overlooked by those who might claim that Jain non-violence is a passive affair. A sort of mystical meditation done solely in one's sitting room. It isn't. It never has been. Mahavira spent most of his adult life wandering from village to village, spreading what was a completely ecological indeed, revolutionary message. Why was it so revolutionary in my opinion? Because there was no god to lay the burden upon. Human beings are responsible for their actions. That's radical. And that's where the solution to the world's problems is to be found.
It is also frequently claimed that non-violence is a lofty ideal that cannot function in this imperfect world. But non-violence has indeed worked for the Jains. It could work for everyone. According to the principles of ahimsa, that workability begins at home, around the dinner table, among friends, and at one's job. Carl Jung called this social setting and the decisions that must be made therein a realm for the "heroism of everyday." The hero of modern times is the individual who is aware of his or her actions and takes deliberate measures to ensure that his path is a harmless one. Its outward trappings are not particularly striking, striking. valiant, famous. But they are enormously what ecology is all about.
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"The beginning of Jainism and its history are much older than the Smruti Shashtras and their commentaries. Jainism is completely different from Hinduism and independent of it." -Sri Kumaraswami Sashtri Chief Justice of the Madras High Court
7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION - JULY 1993 For Private & Personal Use Only