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2015 JAINA Convention
Jainism World of Non-Violence
species is violence to our own selves. Violence begets violence, no matter what its form is. With violence, no one wins in the end. With non-violence, everybody wins, There are no losers.
There is one unique thing about Jainism worth noting It goes way beyond physical violence. It says as individuals, we need to consider not only physical harm but also harm we could do with our speech and most importantly, through OUR OWN THOUGHTS. The teachings of Ahimsa refer not only to wars and visible acts of violence but to violence in our hearts and minds not only our lack of concern and compassion for fellow beings, but also our ILL WILL, our HIDDEN AGENDAS, and our TWO-FACED INTENTIONS. Without such violent thoughts, there could be no violent action. Remember even a giant war starts with a single angry thought on the part of an individual and then before you know it-it catches a wildfire.
peace, forgiveness, and love." At the same assembly Konrad Raiser, secretary general of World Council of Churches said, "We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion." Rabbi Israel Singer of the World Jewish Congress stated, "You should tell your people, and we should tell ours, all of us, to question whether land or places are more important than people's lives. He continued "until we learn to do that there will be no peace. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed the same sentiments when he said. "We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools. The choice is ours.
GLOBAL PEACE: A JAIN PERSPECTIVE by Anop R. Vora
Tt is a common contentment to control greed. I knowledge that the world has turned Physical approach on the other hand calls for abstaining upside down/inside from violence, speaking lies, stealing sexual lust and out in the recent mad craze fora material wealth. Obviously there is a times. It is mired in strong connection between the immoral behavior and violence, hatred and poisonous emotions. For example: violence does not terror. Many innocent start itself. Usually it is preceded by either a trace of people are getting anger orego or greed or a combination thereof. Same killed quite frequently reasoning applies to other vices. That is the reason
The conventional wars Jainism teaches its followers to start with the control of have been put on the back burner and the terrorism negative emotions through yoga fasting, meditation, has taken the central stage. The terrorists fed that it is and a number of other techniques prescribed in the their right to kill blameless people and destroy their scriptures on a regular basis. It says if you control property. We are indeed living in a dangerous and these destructive emotions, the control of physical scary world. That is the reason the global peace has behavior would follow automatically. become an issue of overriding importance. Question is: how can JAINISM contribute to the Global Peace? Out of all the human vices, violence is directly related What does Jain religion have to share with the rest of to Global Peace and therefore JAINISM has put the world community
violence on the top of the list of sins and lays strong
emphasis on non-violence or Ahimsa. This means Let us examine the belief system and the way Jains live compassion in thoughts, words, and deeds towards First, they believe in the existence of soul in each living all living beings. It means reverence for all forms of being which is cternal and divine. They also believe life including humans, animals, insects and plants. It that all souls are spiritually equal, inter-dependent says that the seeds of violence are deep within each and each is capable of achieving the highest spiritual of us and we need to be constantly vigilant. We need potential. To them, Jainism is not only a religion and to work in each moment to maximize reverence and but also a way of life. For thousands of years, Jains have minimize violence. Non-violence must be our beacon been living peacefully and always sought a balanced light to achieve enduring peace. and serene life style.
Lord Mahavira once said, "In happiness and suffering. To practice religion, Jains have been taught to use two in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we approaches in day to day living: Mental and Physical regard our own self Jainism preaches friendship Mental approach entails control over destructive with all living things. Its aim is the welfare of the emotions-emotions of anger, arrogance, deception whole universe, including human beings. All beings and greed and other related passions. This stems from contain life, and therefore are not to be injured and the Jain teachings that ordain the use of forgiveness exploited by us humans, who are endowed with the to overcome anger, humility to overcome arrogance, powers of understanding and self-restraint. Violence straight forwardness to overcome deception and towards our fellow human beings or towards other 206 w how to find her
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Lord Mahavir's principle of non-violence propagated by him almost 2600 years ago is still reverberating in the minds of recent political and spiritual leaders for example, Once Mahatma Gandhi said, "non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction ever devised by the ingenuity of man". Gandhi i learned about the enormous power of Ahimsa directly through lain teachings. He insisted on resolving the conflict with the British Rulers through peaceful means only. It took him over 30 years to get the freedom for India but his persistence paid off. He summarized his wisdom in just one sentence, "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
Besides, non-violence, there is another very important doctrine Jainism focuses on. It is called Anekantvad or open mindedness and active listening to divergent view points. It holds that a true understanding of any situation requires seeing it from every possible point of view. That means we need to look at every situation through someone else's eyes. This philosophy states that no single perspective on an issue contains the whole truth. Substance, time, place and the conditions of the observer all affect the viewpoint - so any event should be considered from different points of view. Truth is seldom absolute and one-sided. Jainism encourages dialogue, active listening and harmony with every one. It is equivalent to spiritual democracy.
The third important principle of the Jain religion is Aparigrah or Total Non-Possessiveness at the monk level and minimizing needs at the layman's level. This helps the environment and also creates balanced distribution of the earthis resources among all creatures inhabiting on the face of the earth. Needs reduction could be a potent force to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor and has direct correlation with the global peace.
A few years ago, Pope John Paul II said, "There is no religious goal, which can possibly justify the use of violence by man against man. He further declared, "Violence... never again! War... never again! Terrorism... never again! In the name of God, may every religion bring upon the earth justice and
How do we take these core teachings of JAINISM
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