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• There is something that Jainism has taught and is needed right now in this world. This is to live in peace. Peace is a silence. It is a silence of death. Ultimately this means peace is when you are a free soul in moksha. It is when you are free of all attachments and are out of the cycle of life and death. Then there is another type peace - World peace. This is a type of peace with no war and is physical and relates to the earth while the other is spiritual. This peace is where there is harmony between every living being. Another type of peace is when you are in meditation. This is when you are not aware of your surroundings and are only focused on what you are chanting. Peace interpreted in many ways but true peace lies in Siddhashila. (Rishi Zaveri, 12, Farmington Hills, MI)
• Peace is to respect others and not harm them or their possessions. It means respecting what their beliefs are, even if you disagree with them. In order to obtain peace within a society, every living being must be treated as an equal. This is because every living thing has a right to live life to its fullest. Stripping someone of that right accumulates negative karma to the soul. All living beings must be free, including animals, humans, and all the other forms of life. All viewpoints should be viewed without any opinion beforehand. But instead in this world people constantly fight over religious beliefs and power, obscured to the fact all their spiritual leaders preached the same fundamental principle; they just have different ways of achieving salvation. (Vishal Modi, 12, Rochester Hills, Michigan)
Peace can
only be achieved when a soul gets Liberated
or moksh. With mokesh the soul
isn't attached to anything therefore
doesn't have to worry about material things. If the soul
is TOTTALY detached from ALL learmas, material objects other souls, etc. then it has achieved peace.
• Most people think that peace is when someone is nice to another or another
example would be when war ends and we sign peace treaties. This thought is Mithyadarshan (wrong perception). True peace means complete happiness. Peace can only be achieved when a soul gets liberated or moksh. With moksh the soul isn't attached to anything therefore doesn't have to worry about material things. If the soul is TOTTALY detached from ALL karmas, material objects other souls, etc. then it has achieved peace. (Nand Dalal, 13, Dallas, TX)
• Peace is happiness when there is nothing in the world that can make you
unhappy. When someone has obtained Moksha, the person has peace because there is no bad happening. (Jaykishan Gudka, 13, London)
• Peace has lot of definitions. Peace means everybody in the world gets along with each other and is happy. True Peace is almost impossible to reach. Peace could mean that there is no war going on. Peace could mean mental peace. Everybody in the world wants peace more than anything else. In order to attain peace, we have to think alike and not be selfish. We have to get rid of violence. We have to get rid of terrorists who are trying to hurt other people. We have to get rid of racism. We have to like each other. Like I said before reaching peace is almost impossible. (Arpit Shah, 14, Livonia, MI)
J14 Biennial JAINA Convention 2007
201 For Private & Personal use only
PEACE THROUGH DIALOGUE
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