Jain Journal 2007 07

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

Page 16

Kanoko Tanaka: On the life-Centred Ethics of Zoroastrianism
Christians would like to imitate Christ the Lord whose love was made perfect at the time of his death on the Cross for the Atonement, and it is worth while quoting the passage; "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends"27 (John 15:13), in order to realize that Semitic monotheism also thinks much of one's self-sacrifice with selflessness. In India, on the other hand, a Jātaka story, for example, says that the Bodhisattva did not hesitate to give his own flesh even to the tigress with its young when he saw them dying of hunger at the bottom of a ravine.28 Self-sacrifice is always highly praised in the world, because life is too much dear to give up.
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(4) An epilogue: A comparative study of religious lifeethics and its educational effects on the youth.
The life-ethics of Indo-Iranian and Semitic religions are different from each other, but "the worth of life" itself makes no difference, no matter whether the authority on 'non-killing' and 'non-violence' is Life-centred or God-centred. However, it is necessary for us in the 21st century to know that the religious life-ethics cannot be uniformed but should be classified as carefully as possible, in order that all of us from different countries may think together about the meaning of "the respect for life."
Every wise parents can tell their children to keep good thoughts, good words and good deeds and may admonish to observe 'nonkilling' and 'non-violence' whenever there is a chance to watch the T.V. news programme on atrocious crimes. If your children ask you, "What is the reason that Man must not kill others ?", do you just
27. Ditto.
28. This story is not seen in the Pali texts but in the Mahāyāna literature and fine arts of Central Asia, China and Japan. Cf. Jātakamālā 1 (Taisho Trpitaka Edition; Taisho Vol.2, p.424ff), Divyavadana 32, where the Bodhisattva is Prince Mahāsattva, the third son of King Mahāratha, saved the starving tigress from unavoidably trying to eat even its own seven cubs.