Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

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

Page 30

FEATURES
COMPLEXITY IS STRENGTH
Aidan Rankin reviews ‘The Jains', a seminal book by Paul Dundas
THIS DEFINITIVE BRITISH STUDY OF JAINISM WAS interpreted in different ways. That is not in any sense the first published in 1992. It has been reissued and updated same as the cultural and moral relativism popularised in the
ten years later as part of Routledge's Library of Religious West over recent decades. In that type of relativism, any Beliefs and Practices. For both author and publisher, the timing is number of truths compete with each other like rival brand excellent. In Britain, and in the Western world more generally, products and the idea that there are no absolutes becomes a there is a growing body of interest in Jainism as an area of rigorously enforced absolute itself. academic study and, more importantly perhaps, as a philosophy Thus the paradox of modern (or postmodern) and a spiritual practice. There is a growing awareness that the relativism in the West is that superficial tolerance gives way study of Jainism has so far received insufficient attention from the to rigid intolerance, a form of compulsory relativism. Jain scholastic and spiritually minded, despite its powerful underlying manypointedness expresses a different, almost opposite influences - well out of proportion to Jain numbers - on Eastern paradox. Anekantvada as a position of philosophical and, more recently, on Western thought.
tolerance stems from the awareness that ultimate truth In the case of the latter, particular attention has been paid exists. Truth can be perceived in different ways, much as a to the concept of ahimsa, literally "non-harming' or abstention perfect crystal can be viewed through any one of its many from actions that harm any other life forms. This is fitting, facets. The philosophy of tolerance and variety rests on a since ahimsa is the first of the five Great Vows (mahavratas) of belief in the infallibility of the Tirthankaras, or fordmakers, Jain ascetics and the first of the five Lesser
the twenty-four teachers who achieved full Vows (anvratas) undertaken by Jain lay
enlightenment and liberation. Against this people. Ahimsa has caught the imagination
level of spiritual authority every mortal because it has become associated with the
human being is fallible and should show social and political ideal of non-violence,
enough humility to be tolerant and flexible. including non-violent resistance such as
As Dundas explains: The central Jain Gandhi's truth-struggle (satyagraha).
intellectual position is that manypointedness, Ahimsa certainly does encompass these
that is to say a variet of approaches and concepts, but as Dundas shows, it
standpoints, has to be incorporated into represents far more. Throughout the book,
any... judgement and regarded as evolving he is adept at revealing the subtleties of
from two factors: the claim of full Jain thought. There is a sense in which
omniscience for the fordmakers, the authorievery Jain is an intellectual, if we
tative teachers who mediate a correct understand 'intellectual' to mean one who
Paul Dundas
understanding of the nature of reality to the searches for underlying truths. This search is intrinsic to u nenlightened, and the interpretation of that reality as being Jainism, which from its beginnings showed a profound characterised by both permanence and change. awareness of the complexities of the universe. In Jainism there This balance of permanence and change is central to are none of the spiritual quick fixes that so often appeal to Jain teaching. It challenges the linear thinking that has Western spiritual seekers, schooled by consumerism even when predominated in Western and more occasionally Eastern they reject it. Dundas brings out for the reader the complexity ways of looking at the world. For the past three hundred that can make Jainism seem so elusive, but which is its source years or so, the idea of progress as an inexorable forward of strength.
march has underpinned attitudes towards economic As such, The Jains is a delight to read, arousing in the development and social change, and attitudes towards the reader feelings of admiration and respect. But that does not environment and technology. The linear view of progress, mean that it is an easy book. Like its subject matter, it is linked closely to economic growth, has prevailed in the complicated and, although he makes his work accessible to the West and by extension in global economy. Yet in a paradox non-specialist, Dundas does not baulk at discussing difficult that a Jain can readily appreciate, this notion of progress is ideas or putting several sides to a philosophical question. This being challenged by progress itself. Many of the most approach very much reflects the Jain doctrine of anekantvada, recent insights of physics point us towards a more holistie or 'manypointedness'. Anekantvada is the ability to look at a view of the universe, in keeping with the Jain idea that all given issue from different angles and to realise that there are life is interconnected, which forms the basis of ahimsa. different paths to the truth which can itself be seen and The linear conception of the cosmos, the natural world
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Jain Spirit - June - August 2003