Jain Spirit 2001 06 No 08

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

Page 29

LIFESTYLE
CHOOSE
Jain Spirit June-August 2001
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O SEE A JAIN LIVING BY JAIN VALUES IS A NO LESS MARVELOUS sight than being trapped in a storm on a mountainside and, looking up, seeing a person coming toward you holding a light in his hand. Jains can be the greatest light bearers the animals have, for animals today are no match for human self-obsession, greed and appetites for flesh and skin. So, how should Jains proceed?
We know about the wonderful works of the caring Jains who save lives by setting up hospitals, clinics and shelters for humans and animals in trouble. I remember standing on a rooftop at the Jain bird hospital in Delhi and seeing precisely the same look in the eyes of one of the lucky avian inpatients as I saw in the eyes of a destitute man two hours later at a Jain hospital in another part of the city. Those eyes spoke across the species barrier to convey gratitude and relief. To see an individual, bird or beggar, cow or child, who has found comfort and refuge from an unkind world is to feel blessed. However, I am thinking now of Jains who, with competing demands on their time, find ways to play another very special role: that of the ahimsa ambassadors.
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TO CARE
To live ethically need not be a burden
but a source of joy and fulfilment, explains Ingrid Newkirk
Conscientious Jains can effortlessly incorporate a commitment to minimise violence in their daily lives. It is done by being aware of what we support when we shop, by choosing a non-violent diet, by conducting day-to-day business with high ethics and a desire to avoid the infliction of suffering. Every day can be an example of Mahavir's teachings of respect for life.
Right Eating. "Right" here means, of course, choosing to do the least harm to sentient beings. We can teach others with forks and fingers as well as with pens and paper. Can you imagine if all those little birds and other innocent animals a meat-eater is responsible for killing in one lifetime were to come and stand outside that person's door? Only a very callous individual would step outside and face them! Similarly, for every veggie meal you have, for every meal you persuade someone else to have you can do the maths to see just how many animals you have saved.
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Right eating means eating right for good health. Vegans greatly reduce their chances of stroke, cancer and heart attack, even impotence. So add your own life to the "Saved" column and the lives of anyone else you rescue from a carnivorous diet!
Jains, having more experience to draw from in their own families than all the wealth of cookbooks in the world, can be invaluable fonts of knowledge to others, shining examples at home, at social gatherings and in the workplace. Nowadays, if someone sees you eating a veggie meal instead of that "mystery meat" on a plane or hears you order a veggie food in a restaurant, they want to know more. If they come to your house, a world of new taste experiences open up and they are in awe. Their questions are elementary but honest: "Where do you get your protein?" or "Don't you miss meat?" Each answer is like turning on a light for them in a dark room.
When people ask, "Why are you a vegetarian?" I like saying, "Well, if I wouldn't eat a puppy, I won't eat a lamb!" Sir Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda, woke up to that revelation when they were sitting at their dining room table overlooking the fields outside their country home. They were about to eat a leg of lamb when they saw two lambs playing. The question stopped being, "What is this dish?" but became "Who was this dish?" Worldwide chances are that whoever the animal, he or she endured not only hideously cruel transport and beatings but an experience so frightening it would make any horror film look like a boring documentary.
Remind your environmentalist friends (with one of our posters!) that meat eating is the greatest polluter of the earth's water and soil; that deforestation is directly linked to animal based agriculture, and that the world's aquifers are being depleted by meat production.
Right Dressing. What is with that Neanderthal look of animal hide and hair? Nothing looks more ridiculous and cheap or smells worse than leather. The wonderful Texas-born designer,