Jain Journal 1997 01

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

Page 26

OHIRA JAINISM AND UNIFICATION THOUGHT
Life is very dear to any jiva-for it is irreplaceable and weighs heavier, as it is said, than the earth. Jaina idealism of ahimsa as such must have come from their sound judgement on love for all things' lives.
Jainism inherited the primitive animistic view held in the preMahāvīra period, that the world is full of invisible jivas. Jainas then came up with a peculiar notion that an earth-jiva's life, an elephant's life and a man's life are all equal in value. This idea might have come from the doctrines of karma and rebirth. The doctrine of karma is based on the view of life that jiva or ātman is primarily pure and identical. However, when this pure jīva gets bound with karmic particles, he starts to transmigrate by way of taking various forms of life, such as an earth-jiva, elephant, man and so on, in accordance with the law of transmigration. All jivas in all forms are, therefore, in essence equivalent in terms of life.
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A present-day animist like Prof. Keiji Iwata of Kyoto University, Japan (author of "Philosophy of the Cosmos" and "Anthropology of Grass. Trees. Worms. Fish". etc.) supports an idea that the cosmos is the space for life, and all living beings including man are equivalent in terms of life. All things in nature, that exist in totally different dimension from that of man, are beautifully maintaining their own system of order, diversity, autonomy, cooperation, coexistence, cyclic circulation, perpetuation and so on. Their system as such is, in fact, functioning better than that of man. Some of today's ecologists have, then, arrived at a conclusion that man is no better than a part of nature, and his intelligence stands no higher position than a relative level. Now they are appealing to us, "We should re-evaluate the idealism of love of life and love of all things." Man's DNA and that of all things are almost alike, hence all forms of life stand equal in value. Today's animists and ecologists have thus come up on the side of the Jainas.
Man was created by God, says Unification Principle, as the object of His love, and all things were created for the sake of man. Man came on earth, in other words, to fulfill the purpose of developing and perfecting His love, that has ever been lying in the state of unfathomable potency. All things are under man's domination, so that he can consume them in order to perform the purpose of God's creation. Consequently, man's life is more precious than the lives of all things in terms of the purpose of His creation. They are not equal in value. All things are created to die on earth, while man is to transmigrate, after his death, to the spirit world and enjoy his eternal life centered around God.
According to Rev. Moon, all things are happy to be consumed by man, had he not fallen, and to become a part of his flesh, for they can