YJA Convention 2000 07 LA Fourth

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

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SATISH KUMAR
Sessions:
DEVELOPING A LANGUAGE TO COMMUNICATE THE ANCIENT PRINCIPLES OF JAINISM IN THE CONTEMPORARY MEDIUM MAKING JAINISM RELEVANT TO THE MODERN WORLD QUESTIONING AUTHORITY... presented with SHRI CHITRABHANUJI
How does one know whom to listen to? How can you tell the difference between a true spiritual teacher and a fraud? Shouldn't we only believe what we have realized ourselves, and regard everything else as a kind of blind faith?
See if you can experience 9 years as a monk; an 8000 mile trek across the world through 'friendly and 'hostile' territory; 25 more years as founder and editor of two international magazines, a concurrent 9 years as director of a British college for environmental studies; throw in a devoted family life for good measure, and you might know what it's like to walk a mile (or a few thousand of them) in Satish Kumar's shoes.
Satish Kumar was a Terapanthi Jain monk between the ages of nine and 18. At that time he exercised the option of becoming a layperson and continued the Jain tradition of walking by traveling throughout Asia, Europe and the United States with nothing but his two feet anda passport. Inspired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook an 8,000 mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through deserts, mountains, storms and snow. As part of the adventure he was thrown into jail in France, faced a loaded gun in America, and delivered packets of peace tea’ to the leaders of the four (then) nuclear powers.
In 1973 he settled in England where he helped establish and currently serves as Director of Programme at) Schumacher College, an residential international center devoted to studying man's relationship with the environment and his place in the natural world. Mr. Kumar established Resurgence magazine in the 1970s and is also now a director of Jain Spirit magazine. He has guided a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures in Britain. He founded the Small School in the city of Hartland, a pioneering secondary school (for people ages 11 to 16) which brings into its curriculum ecological and spiritual values. He recently published an autobiography entitled Path Without Destination, a work remarkable for both its dead honesty and its exposition of various common social practices. While opening eyes to Jainism's new and vital role in the global community, he will discuss the 'why'and 'how'of overcoming materialism in our personal lives and dealings.
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