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WELCOME
t is at once a pleasure and an honour to act as Guest Editor for this issue of Jain Spirit. It is a pleasure because it provides the chance to explore subjects that fascinate me, to study in more depth an ancient repository of wisdom. Editing Jain Spirit is also a great and unexpected honour for a non-Jain. This confers on me a special responsibility to interpret Jain philosophy honestly and faithfully, without letting Western or Eurocentric preoccupations needlessly intrude. At the same time, being a non-Jain perhaps enables me to explore from a fresh perspective the ways in which Jain philosophy is contributing, and might contribute still further, to a wider consciousness.
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This
issue, therefore, contains a large number of articles by writers who are not Jains by origin, but who are applying Jain principles to various areas of their lives and their thought. One of the main tenets of Jainism is aparigraha. This means 'non-possessiveness', and thus the primacy of the clear mind and the spirit over material concerns. For the Jain monk or nun, aparigraha requires the complete renunciation of material possessions. For the layperson, it means learning to live within limits, to consume according to practical needs rather than making consumption an end in itself.
Aparigraha implies respect for the human scale and beyond that, an awareness that all life is interconnected and that the Earth's resources are finite, requiring care and respect. This ancient wisdom is also highly timely for our age of gigantism and over-consumption. Ted Trainer, an Australian academic and ecological pioneer, shows how aparigraha can be lived out within a Western context. His article is refreshing for its good humour and its lack of the doom-mongering political extremism that so often makes green ideas inaccessible. Professor Trainer sees the relationship between changing our approach to economics and keeping the same sweater year after year without needing to replace it. The Jain principle of anekantvada has strongly influenced my approach to social and political issues. It is usually translated as 'many-sidedness' and enjoins us to recognise that there are different paths to same underlying truth. Too often we look at issues and fellow human beings through an ideological an approach that leads to misunderstanding, conflict and oppression. With this in mind, McLaughlin of the US-based Center for Visionary Leadership seeks to transcend the outdated right/left paradigm that is distorting and polarising modem politics. The search for preoccupies Peter Russell, too. He celebrates the growing confluence between spirituality as the concerns of both disciplines increasingly overlap.
the prism, Corinne restrictive, new and
paradigms science,
In Jainism, spirituality and science have always been united. Jains believe in an eternal universe, with laws that can be deduced by scientific reason and spiritual contemplation together. David Frawley, one of the West's finest Vedic teachers, writes of the spiritual union between humanity and nature, which is a step towards enlightenment, an insight shared by Jains. Paras Shah sketches out a Jain foreign policy, based on anekantvada, and Rebecca Hoh looks at the many-sided approaches that young people bring to the question of faith. We are also pleased to publish Dr. L.M. Singhvi's second article on sacred spaces, which enable us to recharge our spiritual batteries in an atmosphere of beauty and calm. Also, we introduce the excellent and lively new Kids' section, which is very much the brainchild of Rebecca Hoh. In many ways, this is our most important section because, in a literal sense, it is about
the future.
The greatness of Jainism lies in its ability to combine timeless wisdom with a dynamic, flexible approach to human and spiritual questions. This makes it well suited to a complex world, which is ill-served by narrow political ideologies and religious fundamentalisms. The Jain contribution to humanity is immense, and the potential for Jains to make a difference is greater still.
Jai Jinendra,
Aidan Rankin
Aidan Rankin - Guest Editor, editor@jainspirit.org
in Education International 2010_03
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