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Doctrinal and Social Context of Non-Violent... : 73
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Quakers are probably the best-known pacifist church. Mennonites and other Anabaptists come second Some communities of Quakers have gradually loosened their relation to Christianity and they would prefer to say that they form a movement with Christian roots. The total Jain population is estimated to 5 million in India and 250,000 in diaspora. (Jain, Prakash 2011: 69) The number of the Quakers represented by Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), the main umbrella organization, is estimated at 400,000. If I am well informed, the only comparative study of the Jains and the Quakers deals primarily with the socio-economic standing of these two communities: Nevaskar, Balwant (1971): Capitalists without Capitalism: The Jains of India and the Quakers of the West (Contributions in Sociology), Greenwood Pub., Westport. ISBN 978-0837132975. In transcription Sanskrit words, I try to follow the pattern of Jeffrey D. Long, stated in Long 2010: x. “All sorts of living beings should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away.” (Acārānga sūtra 1.4.2), “With due consideration preaching the law of mendicants, one should not do injury to one's self, not to anybody else, nor to any of the four kinds of living beings. But a great sage, neither injuring nor injured, becomes a shelter of all sorts of afflicted creatures, even as an island, which is never covered with water." (Acāranga sutra, 1.6.5). Both passages are quoted according to Acārānga sūtra 1968: 38, resp. 61. Acārānga sutra, 2.3.63 According to Umāsvāmi, hiṁsā is "the severance of vitalities out of passion." (Tattvärthasūtra VII.13, see Jain Shugan 2010: 246) Italics has been removed and put on other places in this passage by Zdenek Vojtisek. Acārānga sutra, 1.6.134. Striving for detachment, however, should not be seen as opposite to compassion. Mainstream Jain authors condemn such an extreme view as not genuinely Jain: “One of the sub-sects of Jain has ever gone to the extent of describing the act of saving the life of a man or animal in distress, as violence." (Mehta 2012: 37) The same author complained that some spiritual teachers (Acāryas) “brazenly describe the positive aspects of ahimsā, like saving the lives of man and other creatures, feeding the hungry, providing water to thirsty, helping the sick with medicines etc., as undesirable, because in their view, these activities result in generating of karmas, which inhibit one's liberation. They treat such activities as an expression of attachment, which according to themis the cause of bondage and not salvation.” (Mehta 2012: 36) Other refuses these extreme views as well: “It is fact that there are sects in Jainism where deeds of philanthropy and feelings of compassion are considered undesirable and detrim sectarian only and not as original and central part of Jainism." (Bothara 2009: 90) It is true for monks that one does not refrain from himsā because it is compassionate to do so, one refrains because the practice of hiṁsā indicates internal impurity, i. e. impure upayoga which binds.” (Johnson 1995: 177) In this way, the principle of ahimsă can be summarized as follows: "Aspire for yourself. Do not aspire for others. This is the fundamental principle of Jainism." (Jain, Bhagchandra 2012: 326) Mennonites and subsequent groups seem to be the most important of those denominations. The Gospel According to Matthew 5:44, New International Version.
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