Jain Spirit 2002 06 No 11

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

Page 49

Peaks Of Sanctuary
asceticism that is consistent with every aspect of Jain ethics. Writing of the Hindu affection for mountains, Chile's former ambassador to India, Miguel Serrano has stated, "These extraordinary people had created a mythology as gigantic as the mountaintops which surrounded their country. These very mountains were united to their souls... Like most people who look upon nature as something symbolic, they are forever condemned to the eternal and immeasurable. In order to survive in ordinary life, and so as not to lose themselves forever on this otherworldly plane, they have had to create an elaborate structure around them, with the result that they live almost entirely according to formulas." All those customised rules, regulations and spiritual elements that are fundamental to the Jain world are thoroughly tapped within the austere confines of the mountain. As with their Hindu compatriots, Jains too are fond of pilgrimage. Like a mountain climber, the majority of Tirthankaras 'conquered themselves ultimately atop mountains. Absolute absence of passion (kasaya), care in walking (irya-samiti), sense of kinship and equality with all life forms (samyatva), spiritual liberation (sayogakevalin), austerity (tapas), pilgrimage (yatra), the interdependency of the soul (parasparopagraho jivanam), the highest soul (paramatman), renunciation (pravrajya) and liberation in this life (jivanamukti) are all elements of a spiritual puzzle that the vertical altitudes and bare margins of life on a mountain dictate to the religious observer.
Foremost among these principles of life and behaviour, ahimsa reigns supreme. In this sense, Jain peaks, caves and
valleys collectively signal a veritable mountain range of compassion. Identification with the mountain, and the modesty which mountains necessarily inflict upon the human ego, is given to non-violence. Within Chinese Buddhist tradition, the liberation of animals (fang-sheng) and the philosophy of non-killing (chieh-sha) - according to scholar Joanna Handlin Smith - can be traced back to the 5th century. Not surprisingly, that is precisely the period when sacred mountains and mountain asceticism enjoyed a renaissance of interest.
In my own exploration and pilgrimage to mountains and within mountain wildernesses, I have forever been reminded of the simplicity of human life. What do we really need after all in any given day? A few pieces of fruit and vegetable, exercise, fresh air and a cosy place to lie down at night, look at the stars and dream. To wake up connected to this earth. To participate in the myriad of weathers, the biological and aesthetic elegance which the mountain environments foster. To be honed, rarified and made whole by a world to which dreamers, pilgrims and philosophers on all continents will forever and nostalgically look heavenward. Jain culture has intrinsically expressed these things from the near beginning of time.
Michael Tobias is an avid mountain climber. He has edited two books on mountains (The Mountain Spirit, 1979 and Mountain People, 1986) and written several books on Jainism.
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