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
COMPASSIONATE ENVIRONMENTALISM
Tim Helton tim@timhelton.com
Tim Helton is currently a PhD student at Drew University where he is studying the Anthropology of Religion. As a student in the first annual ISSJS in India, he developed a love for Jain people and their rich religious tradition, and expects to do his dissertation on Jain-Christian dialog.
In light of this convention's theme, the comments of the noted Jain scholar Anne Vallely are worth considering. Vallely notes that while Jainism as practiced in the west is becoming increasingly environmentally active, the ecological sensibilities held by Indian Jains have historically differed significantly from those who participate in the western environmental movement. Western ecologists see themselves as protectors of the environment and actively seek to combat human activities that lead to environmental destruction, while Jainism's 'live and let live' suggests a more serene approach. Thus, Vallely calls the Jain concept of Ahimsa 'an ethic of non-interference' which leads to 'disengagement and withdrawal from nature.' She calls Jainism a powerful ecology in itself' but also notes that Jainism concentrates on the avoidance of harmful activities rather than the active promotion of remedies. This difference in philosophy derives from the Jain concern with detachment, and Vallely notes that this concern also lies at the root of differences in the way that Westerners and Jains think about compassion. For Jains, 'compassion means recognizing that all living beings...deserve respect and that none should be injured. Thus, for Jains compassion is not 'emotional vicarious suffering.'
The evocative phrase 'emotional vicarious suffering' pleads for elaboration, and a brief story may help. As a young Christian minister, I once expounded a scriptural passage that describes a time when Jesus felt compassion for a crowd. Besides suffering from the disadvantage introduced by differing definitions of the word, the English word 'compassion' is much too weak to contain the meaning that the gospel writer had in mind. To capture the thought of the writer, the passage might better have been translated with
Ecology - The Jain Way
something like, 'Jesus ached with sorrow at the crowd's suffering.' The way that I read the verse was that Jesus experienced a visceral emotion that led him to long to alleviate the hunger of those in the crowd in much the way that Western ecologists, faced with a particularly ugly example of environmental destruction, long to mitigate that destruction. Such longing, suggests attachment, rather than detachment.
I am now a student learning from religions like Jainism, and the words of the Hippocratic Oath have become increasingly meaningful to me. If one would help, the medical doctors insist, one must 'do no harm.' Looking back on the twentyfive years that passed since I preached that sermon, I can see that the help that my compassion motivated was often overshadowed by the harm I did sometimes in the very act of trying to help! Because the Jain concept of compassion is closer to the 'do no harm' of the Hippocratic Oath than to my longing to help, I find a deep wisdom in the synthesis of these two notions of compassion. For if I would help (whether other humans or the environment), I must first do no harm. However, the 'emotional vicarious suffering' that Jesus experienced is not without wisdom as well; to deny help, when it is within my capacity to render it, is not much better than doing harm. Thus, I find that compassion, including environmental compassion, walks a tightrope between doing no harm and doing good. On this tightrope, Jainism teaches me the wisdom of detached restraint while Christianity teaches me the wisdom of engaged caring. Listening to both, I learn to maintain a healthy detachment from outcomes while I engage in helping activities.
Recently I encountered the words of the Irya Vahiyae Sutra: 'May all the suffering I caused knowingly or unknowingly cease.' Since I have often hurt others in spite of my best intentions, I find these words particularly poignant. These words also resonate with me because they emphasize (in my mind) the Christian notion that a loving God adds to our best efforts, flawed as they are, a measure of grace that makes them good enough. Thus, when I hurt another in my effort to help, I can hope that the ripples of pain will fade with time, and that the good, rather than the harm will be retained.
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The most powerful forces on the planet, human societies, face the same balancing act that I do as an individual. Even in our efforts to do the right