Jain Journal 1980 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 11

JAIN JOURNAL
world, we have to look in. We can change the destructive trend into constructiveness if we make changes first in our own inner world. Changes cannot come unless we change ourselves, our thinking, our perception, attitude, especially our greed for wealth and pleasure.
The first step is to come out of violence in thought. A person who is violent in thought cannot resist bringing that violence into the arena of words. Whoever is nesting violence in his heart will one day, sooner or later, cause it to explode into the field of action. And coming into action, it will destroy the person as well as the environment. It is like
hstick. A matchstick cannot ignite anything without first igniting its own mouth. Then it burns that which it touches. In the same way, the person who holds such hurtful vibrations ends up goaded by his own violence to kill himself or to be put into that situation where he will be destroyed.
That is why Bhagavan Mahavira said 2500 years ago that to accumulate any weapon of violence is not healthy for the accumulator. It applies to the whole range of our living, from what we choose to put into our stomachs to what we choose to think about. When too many negative vibrations are accumulated, it becomes harmful to the collector-to his body, to his mind, to his emotions, to his life. Where there is only the integration of those vibrations without an attempt to melt them away, it works like an overheated nuclear reactor. The vibrations reach a boiling point and become a threat to life. Such vibrations require dismantlement, disintegration, cooling down.
That is why the spiritual aspirant does not want to carry the vibrations of violence in his body or mind. Meditation is a way to cool them down, to dilute their intensity. If you work in this direction, you can transmute all the negatives into positive constructive energy to make your life healthy, vibrant, and meaningful.
How to begin ? First, you make a conscious decision not to do anything which is harmful to you. You refuse to take any hurtful influence into your body, into your mind, into your life. This step is called samvara, stoppage. You tell yourself, “I am responsible for my own life. Now I stop inviting all kinds of negative vibrations into my life. I am moving in a positive direction toward respect for myself and reverence for all life. I want to calm down my vibrations and live as a help and a blessing to life.”