JAINA Convention 2009 07 Los Angeles

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

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15th Biennial JAINA Convention 2009
12.
Yathasamvibhag - sharing your "stuff" and helping the community, supporting ascetics in their spiritual journey.
Among these 12 precepts, Ahimsa, asteya, iccha pariman, upabhog paribhog pariman and yathasamvibhag are deeply connected with environmental issues. Accepting that animals do possess consciousness and share the same kind of feelings of pleasure and pain can create more awareness to treat them like our family members. The equality of all souls builds a friendly relationship with them. Giving up those professions which are connected with the cruel treatment of animals can be a major step in protecting the animal kingdom. The equal rights of sharing natural resources will emphasize living a simple life rather than an aristocratic life style. All these small but prodigal precepts can establish peace and harmony within nature.
Cruelty towards nature and the inhabitants of our planet can be curtailed if we put certain questions to ourselves while buying any product - is it my need or greed? Can I do without this? Will this desire harm the ecosystem? Is it better to enjoy the existential beauty or its extinction by consumption? Am I a nature loving person? Do I look upon nature as merely serving and fulfilling my desire? If every individual takes an initial step to contemplate and analyze, it will bring in more awareness to restore nature and enhance its potential. On the basis of above vows, His holiness Acharya Mahaprajna has conceptualized a strategy of an eco-friendly life style.15 It runs as follows:
More desire → More consumption production → More pollution.
Eating animals simultaneously contributes to a multitude of tragedies: the animals' suffering and death, the ill health and early death of people, the unsustainable overuse of oil, water, land, topsoil, grain, labor and other vital resources, environmental destruction, including deforestation, species extinction, mono-cropping and global warming, the legitimacy of force and violence, the misallocation of capital, skills, land and other assets, vast inefficiencies in the economy, tremendous waste, massive inequalities in the world, mass world hunger and starvation, the transmission of dangerous diseases and moral failure in so-called civilized societies. Vegetarianism is an antidote to all of these
Alpa iccha - less desire of material abundance. Alpa arambha - restriction of unnecessary violence, unethical professions.
Alpa parigraha - limited possessions, wealth, unnecessary tragedies.16 A vegetarian diet can attachment.
feed significantly more people than a meatcentered diet. The way that we breed animals for food is a threat to our planet.
Alpa upabhog - limited personal consumption. Avashyak Hinsa - indulgence only in necessary activities. Micro-organisms and other subtle forms of life might be killed, for example, in order to maintain a home, cook food and do business; we cannot completely stay away from any kind of violence.
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Unlimited desires are the root cause of every problem. Everybody has to learn and understand
Ecology - The Jain Way
that happiness does not come from more material consumption; rather, it comes from having peace of mind within. Desires are needed to have incentives for achievement and progress, but those desires that harm another's life, self respect and value are to be eliminated. Even Gandhi said that, 'I don't want independence of India by any means of violence. I can wait little longer but I want only on the basis of nonviolence.' Mahavir never said that you should not use your caliber, talent and efficiency to make money. His message is that you use your wealth in promoting the welfare of the community. If you have excess give back to society to help the needy instead of living an extravagant life. That will reduce the big gap between the rich and the poor.
Lives of animals and plants which inhabit this planet with us deserve protection, preservation and care. As human beings we also have the responsibility for air, water, fire and soil for future generations. The dominance of humanity over More nature and the cosmos is not to be propagated. The earth cannot be changed unless the human consciousness transforms.
Acharya Mahaprajna, Economics of Mahavir
Jainism also emphasizes and promotes the concept of vegetarianism. The so-called modern world considers that animals are made for humans and there is no harm in killing them for human use. This conviction creates selfishness in man killing millions of animals every year for food, cosmetics, leather products and research.
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World Watch, July-August issue, 2004
Peter Uvin, The State of World Hunger