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course. Why then is man clinging so obstinately to his old beliefs and observances? In reality our beliefs and observances are changing and are changing imperceptibly. Unaware as we are of the motion of the earth rotating on its axis, so we are unaware of the changes occurring in our own beliefs. But we hold on to certain beliefs in the same way that a female monkey continues to cradle her dead baby long after every last vestige of life has been extinguished from its body.
Man too sometimes clings to the 'corpse' of his beliefs. By doing so, he goes against creation's principle of change and development. He interferes with the very function of the universe. Traditions laid down hundreds of years ago were right at that time, but much water has flown under the bridge since then. Circumstances have changed now; can it be right to cling to these old systems and make a fuss about it?
The cells of the skin die and are replaced. The tree's bark renews itself from time to time. The old peels off to reveal the new.
Jain Education International
The Jains through Time
Snakes shed their skin; trees and shrubs shed their leaves and sprout tender new ones. How then can man be the exception and hold out against change and renewal? To deny change, to oppose evolution, is futile. The reactionary endangers his own being. If a river ceased to flow, if trees stopped changing their leaves, if the body refused to cleanse the old blood in its veins, could they still exist? True wisdom comes from man coordinating the old and the new. It lies in sacrificing the urge to preserve the status quo, and in embracing the path of change and evolution. The truth is not in inertia; it is in motion. Real discernment is in waking up to the reality of things as they are. The meaning of life is movement, integration. We find death where there is inactivity, inertia and resistance to change. A poet has said: He who is alive can bend
He who will not bend is like a corpse.
A living body is never stiff and unmoving. It is supple. A living mind is never prejudiced; it is not closed up in itself or absorbed in outmoded struggles. It is ever open to new ideas and thoughts.
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