JAINA Convention 1993 07 Pittusburgh

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

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verted karma, or, conversely, to stop bothering them, killing them, driving them to extinction in so many ways - from sheer butchery to the more subtle appropriation of whole ecosystems. With our own souls utterly dependent upon the cornucopia of life around us (which we alone are wiping out - forever!) the Jain insights into karma, ecology, and love, and the possibilities for ahimsa and liberation, are remarkably timely. Here is a way of life for everyone, a source of universal salvation that strikes at the heart of ecological science. Just as those "two minutes" of acrimony can suffer exponential multiplication throughout an undisciplined life, so too,conversely, a few moments of temporary asceticism may be sufficient to engender the conviction of a lifetime. Those two minutes, positively approached, become the ethical point for all future behavior. Jainism is the ecology of the future, summed up by the eleven pratimas, a formidable basis for daily life.
The old edicts and vows remain unchanged today in Jainism, a religion for all seasons. In the past, livelihoods forbidden the Jains included any work involving animals, animal by-products, large-scale transport, the use of fire or water or earth. This had to have made life intrinsically difficult for the average individual in ancient India. But is has not gotten easier with time. In fact, the chain of transgressions has become far more obtuse, cause and effect increasingly obscured. We read that animals in Alaska have been deliberately killed in order to bolster the government's case against an oil company, and feel utterly helpless, bereft, somehow distantly implicated in the crime. Events and distraught individuals in the Middle East that unleashed the worst oil spill in human history, killing millions, perhaps billions of defenseless organisms further complicate the syndrome of guild and passive implication. We cannot undo the tragedies, nor sever the links which have absurdly bound us to our gas- guz
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zling automobiles and thus to the catastrophes of a Prince William Sound or Persian Gulf. How many of us flew here to Stanford, or drove? I would guess most of us. Such bondage to the traumatic karma of energy consumption - with its paralyzing toll on the environment is both cerebral and physical. You can do penance in an endless number of ways. By selling your automobile and staying away from airplanes. But I suspect that few of us here will entirely heed that suggestions. But we can also write a letter, sign a petition, place a strategic phone call, volunteer in the next clean-up operation, give a donation, get politically involved, and it goes without saying, vote. There are similarities with the past. Jainism proposes solutions appropriate to the times.
As vegetarians, Jains have already gone a substantial way towards healing the planet. Every vegetarian saves at least three hundred animals per year from being killed. But there are only ten million Jains and soon there will be nearly ten billion other human residents of the Earth. Therefore, to my way of thinking, it is imperative that the ecological credo at the heart of Jainism be persuasively disseminated, a task which will fall increasingly to the next generation.
The world needs Jainism more than ever before and I suspect that the next generation of Jains is going to rise spectacularly to the occasion. For that has always been the pattern of Jainism.
To conclude, may I repeat the words of two monks I fondly remember, who spoke to me one bright winter morning at the temple of Taranga, "I forgive all beings, may all beings forgive me. I have friendship toward all, malice toward none."
Copyright 1992 by Michael Tobias (*1) This essay is adapted from the
author's book, LIFE FORCEThe World of Jainism, by Michael Tobias, Asian Humanities Press, 1991.
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JAIN TEMPLES GUIDELINES
Dev-Shastra Guru are the illuminator of the path of liberation (Modsha). Temples and Sthanaks are places to have them in one place. Temples are also an important place for learning and practicing our religion and to develop uniform social habits. Accordingly, a Temple Guideline Committee was established at JAINA's convention held in San Francisco in July, 1991. A questionnaire was sent with the fall issue of JAIN Digest to obtain suggestions and opinions on the format of Jain Temples in North America. A great majority of those who responded endorsed the idea of our Temples having both Digamber, Swetamber, Murtis with Namoka Mantra inscribed in the middle.
Jain Centers of Pittsburgh, Toronto, Dallas and Buffalo are amongst the first few centers to adopt this format. Happily this format is working very well for these centers, satisfying and uniting the full spectrum of Jains in their community. Combined Pooja of Dev-Shastra Guru, Mahavir Swani and Snatra Pooja and Samulik Micchamidukhadam was celebrated at Siddhachalam on the occasion of JAINA's fall meeting in September, 1992.
A Jain Tithi calendar and Tirtha Yatra is being planned during the year 1993-94. The Temple Guideline Committee will be happy to advise and facilitate in obtaining Murtis and other temple related materials for the centers planning their own temples.
The Committee consists of Dr. Jagat Jain (Buffalo), Dr. Mani Bhai Mehta (Los Angeles), Mr. Ramesh Jain (Toronto), Mr. Prabodh Vaidya (Chicago), Mr. Nalin Shah (Troy, Michigan), Ms. BhadraKathari (Toronto), Mr. Anant Jain (Dallas), and Dr. Mahendra Pandya (New York) 718/816-0083, Fax 212/319-4341.
"There is nothing unusual in my saying that Jainism was in existence long before the Vedas were composed."
-Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, President of India (1962-67)
7TH BIENNIAL JAINA CONVENTION - JULY 1993 For Private & Personal Use Only