Jain Spirit 2000 03 No 03

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 57

PHILOSOPHY
Jains start their day with a peaceful pooja.
War is far removed from their thoughts.
CHANDU SHAH
ny Irish person who is drawn
towards Jainism must sooner or I later wonder about how its principles might be applied to the Northern Ireland situation. Jain philosophy, with its many-pointed (anekanta) view of the world, would not find the Irish problems so intractable since it recognises that the way we regard any issue is a function of our own innate attachments and prejudices. Western religion is, by contrast, too often hamstrung by its insistence upon absolute statements that are demonstrably true. This applies, to a lesser extent, to Western philosophy with its millennia-long search for axiomatic truths, upon which a sound interpretation of the world can be built. Such a black and white view of the world is not one that encourages openness and debate, since 'absolute? truths or principles are there simply to be accepted without question.
The current peace process in Northern Ireland is, in effect, the painfully slow easing of both communities away from their absolutist positions towards the middle ground where accommodation is possible. However, in the zero-sum game of Northern Irish politics, where what is regarded as good for one community must be bad for the other, the moderates of both traditions are always in a precarious position, and can be shoved to one side by the hard-liners at any time. But as Jainism teaches us, the world is prone to continuous change. So points of view that held sway yesterday may be obsolete tomorrow. In a province where the words 'compromise
WAR & PEACE
Where there is deep distrust between people, there needs to be a positive commitment to peace through forgiveness and nonviolence. In such situations, Jainism offers excellent
practical solutions, argues Ciaran Reilly
and 'surrender are regarded as almost synonymous, the leaders of both communities need to be brave enough to explain how the process of moving forward is not some shoddy betrayal, but an acceptance of new realities.
No discussion of Northern Ireland would be complete without a mention of violence. Its eradication is the
ultimate challenge facing the province, because normalization of the relation between the two communities is impossible while violence continues to poison society. The debate on violence in Northern Ireland tends to split depressingly along the usual sectarian lines. One side claims that the violence is merely a symptom of the historic social
56
Jain Spirit • March - May 2000