YJA Convention 1996 07 San Francisco CA Second

Author(s): Young Jains of America (YJA)
Publisher: Young Jains of America YJA USA

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Thinking about the good aspects of close friends and family - when we are angry, we tend to dwell on others weaknesses and do not see the problem in their perspective; performing this exercise helps in practicing Ahimsa and gives rise to a harmonious relationships." It is very useful in meetings - one should never attend a meeting with an angry mood", a participant commented.
3. General comments about the experiments
Most participants felt that it was a very useful principle in everyday life. However, they found it was a difficult principle which needed gradual effort. They commented:
"Controlling my anger made me feel happy and generally trying not to hurt others
also made me feel better. I enjoyed the whole week." • "It helps to reflect on one's actions."
“Being on good terms with people around me and not arguing or finding faults was very enjoyable. I found that by my being non-aggressive and cordial, people reacted very positively to me." "I felt unusually relaxed during the experiment."
Many found that at work Ahimsa conflicted with assertiveness e.g. If your boss asks you to do something you do not want to, then you should say no. It was decided that ahimsa does not mean that one should not disagree with others. Assertiveness need not conflict with Ahimsa.
It was felt that it may be useful to focus the experiment even more in future (e.g. deal only with anger).
Discussion and Evaluation of Above Experiment
The above experiment did not focus on all aspects of ahimsa e.g. walking with shoes is violent and results in killing of insects. This was not prohibited in the experiment. However, it focused on some such as anger, gossiping and provided techniques e.g. observing 'mauna'/silence for an hour a day. At the end of the experiment, participants cannot claim that they will never be violent for the rest of their lives - What they can claim is that they have experienced a taste of non-violence and can make their own judgment as to its usefulness in their own everyday life. They may decide to continue it and develop their own experiments which include other aspects of ahimsa, and thereby experience its higher richness.
The Young Jains Project
We started this project three years ago when we launched our first 'experiment with anger'. We have since conducted several experiments all of which are given in the appendix - they include principles like aparigraha, asteya, tapas, satya, and of course ahimsa. Instructions were sent to our members through our newsletter and a follow up meeting to discuss the results of the experiments was held. On average about fifteen people attempted the experiment to varying levels of seriousness and we have collected some of the questionnaires which they completed. We found that the experiments were
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