Jain Journal 1980 07

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

Page 17

8
If he answered, "Dead," they were going to let it fly away. In this way, they would prove that the wise man did not know everything. While they waited for his answer, the old sage paused and looked them in the eyes. Then he spoke these words, "It is in your hands."
JAIN JOURNAL
This is the point. How we live is in our hands. We can live as a blessing to life or we can live as a curse to life. We can live in friendship and reverence for life, or we can live in animosity and violence towards life. We can protect or destroy, love or hate. It is in our hands. No outside forces, no God or gods are controlling you. You have the innate right to exercise your free will.
Will you choose to love yourself? Ask yourself, "Do I have reverence for my life? Am I choosing to nourish my body with healthy nutrients which are not tainted with bloodshed and violence? Am I weeding my mind of negative thoughts and nourishing it with thoughts of wellwishing for the health and harmony of all living beings ?"
When you wish all well, you are wishing yourself well also. You are a living being. You are including yourself. You are excluding none. By cultivating those thoughts which are beneficial to all, the benefit comes back to you. The plants which you sow blossom in your life. Your well-wishing to all living beings creates around you a field of vibrations which attract health, happiness, prosperity, and peace to you. By freeing others from pain and suffering, you are freeing yourself. In this way, you feel intimately the positive effects of your own generous approach to life at large.
Live and help to let live, this is the main theme of Jaina philosophy. What you want for yourself, give to others. Do you want to live? All life wants also to live. So allow all life to have the same opportunity as you to grow and evolve and live in their own way. Giving space to others, you feel spaciousness expand in you and open your heart. Past negative vibrations melt away. Love blossoms and you no longer have any self-hatred. You feel confidence in your natural capacity to love. You fall in love with your own Self. That is the greatest step. For to love oneself is to live with a forgiving heart. And living with a forgiving heart is to care for others as one would care for oneself.
Revere your own Self and you will revere all life. See the flame of life in you and you will see the precious divine spark in all. Keeping yourself in this flow of awareness, you will not be able to cause harm either to yourself or to others. So to erase violence in the world, first erase it in yourself.