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Jai Jinendra!
We are very excited to share with you the details of Young Jain Professionals' weekend of "Living Jainism on the American River" where we stretched our bodies and spirits. It was a unique opportunity to escape hectic schedules for a weekend in the great outdoors to enjoy rafting, camping, yoga, sessions on Kashayas, and socializing. The Third Young Jain Professionals convention was held near Sacramento, California with participants from across North America plus a couple of visitors from England.
Young Jain Professionals
On Friday the group of 62 met for the first time. Icebreakers included a creative twist on a popular game show called "Who wants to be a "Mahavir"? Participants worked in teams to answer a variety of questions regarding Jainsim. In addition, the "Jain Experiment" of the weekend was launched. Participants were encouraged to monitor their own experiences of anger, ego, greed and deceit in thought, word and deed. Some of the group started this experiment at the beginning of the week to see how it affected their daily life and convention time.
Saturday started off early with a bus ride to the rafting site at 7 a.m. The rafting guides shared about the essentials of safe rafting and we spent the majority of the rest of the day on the river rafting. Our guides challenged us to work as a team to handle each set of rapids and it's unique attributes. Everyone who wanted to "body surf" jumped in to enjoy the refreshing water. There were a few involuntary adventures in the water.
Lunchtime discussion focused on how two Kashayas, Greed and Deceit affect us. The group shared approaches regarding how to deal with them. This included exchanges about what might be the cause of such behaviors, what do when it occurs and how to improve our reactions in subsequent occurrences. Issues included the difference between "greed" and "ambition", exploring the extent to which deceitful behavior includes partial truths, non-disclosure, outright lies and how our attachment to people and material objects can be the cause of greed and deceit in our lives. After a quick shower, we had a nourishing hot meal prepared by the guides. Informal discussions continued after dinner around the campfire and the desert table.
Sunday started out with a yoga session of 40 participants ready to stretch our bodies before our second day of rafting at 7:15 a.m. This was followed by a presentation about the start-up of a Jain camp for children run by Jains in our age group. We spent some time on more challenging rapids on Sunday morning and ended our day in the water with some gentle waves. Late afternoon gave us an opportunity to discuss the remaining two Kashayas, Anger and Ego. Exchanges included how to move in the continuum from controlling vs. acting out on these emotions to even thinking about them. This session also covered how pride in our accomplishments brings out ego and the inclination to blame others without considering our own part in instances of anger. This was followed by a leadership session to solicit input from participants about the direction of YJP, future events, and how they felt about the trip. We also took this opportunity to remind everyone of the upcoming elections and how they could contribute to the future success of this young organization. Finally after dinner, there was a slideshow of our adventures in the water and a campfire discussion about the experiences of the group in living the Kashayas experiment during the weekend.
Monday morning started with yoga and was filled with good byes as everyone headed back to Sacramento to depart for home. We know things about one another, and ourselves that you can only learn from working hard together, and sharing stories by the campfire. All too soon our time together ended until the next event.
Special thanks to our session facilitators: Sejal Doshi, Dipen Mehta, Shobhina Chheda. Avnee Shah, Shefali Chheda, Sanjay Mehta and Tushar Mehta as well as our Yoga leads Maneesh Kenia and Vivek Maru. Please visit www.homestead.com/yjp to keep up to date on YJP's activities.
We hope you are enjoying the summer. This will be the last note from the current Board members, whose term draws to an end this month. In addition to the Whitewater rafting trip in Sacramento the first official Board for YJP undertook many structural activities that will start the foundation for the organization:
• Creation of formal roles on the board (and "test driving" them)
Formalizing a relationship with JAINA as a sub-committee
Creation of initial Operating Guidelines for the organization (an evolving process) Creation of a formal membership base
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Next event for YJP will be held from February 16th-18th, 2001. Please go to our website (www.homestead.com/yjp) after November 20th for more information. If you wish to be added to the mailing list to receive regular updates, please email doshiam@hotmail.com.
32/ JAIN DIGEST FALL 2000
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