YJA Convention 2010 07 New Brunswick NJ Ninth

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

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High School/College Sessions
Priya Gandhi - Jai Jinendra I am Priya Gandhi! I am so excited to attend my first YJA convention. Currently a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, I come from the Metropolitan D.C. Jain Sangh. Dancing, art, and music are just some of my passions, but most of all, I am 100% proud to be a Jain. I participate in Sunday school and perform in skits and raas-garbas in the annual Mahavir Jayanti program along with being a Gujarati/English MC. I came to the US when I was six, but I enjoy going back to India, especially last summer when I became very close to the Jain Sadhvijis in Mumbai. I even got a chance to do Samvatsari Paushadh with them. While in India, I wowed the maharasahebs and the sangh with descriptions of what our Jain youth knows. I can't wait to share what they said at the convention!
Jainism and Journalism
If you are interested in writing in the newspaper or being on television - you need a lead. In this session Dr. Manoj Jain, who works for the Washington Post and interviews with CNN, will speak about how to work with and share Jain principles on the media.
Manoj Jain - Please refer to "Circle of Life and Soul - Connecting the Dots" on page 20 for a full biography.
Jainism and the Harmony of Religions: The Wisdom of Anekantavada
Dr. Jeffery Long of Elizabethtown College will present on anekantavada, the Jain teaching that multiple perspectives are needed in order to arrive at the truth. This ancient concept has urgent relevance to today's world, which is marked by intense conflict among religions and between religion and science. Dr. Long will argue that the system of logic developed in the Jain tradition allows one to accept many points of view without self-contradiction. Through anekantavada, one can see that there is some truth in all perspectives, and that all perspectives are also limited. This way of thinking turns inter-religious harmony from a mere pleasant sentiment into a logically rigorous alternative to dogmatic views of all kinds (religious and non-religious).
Jeffery Long - Jeffery D. Long is Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where he has taught since receiving his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of Chicago in the year 2000. His doctoral dissertation was focused on anekantavada and is entitled Plurality and Relativity: Whitehead, Jainism, and the Reconstruction of Religious Pluralism. He is also the author of A Vision for Hinduism: Beyond Hindu Nationalism and Jainism: An Introduction. He is the former Chair of the Steering Committee of DANAM, the Dharma Association of North America, which promotes the constructive study of Indic traditions. Dr. Long is also an active member of the Hindu community in America. He is a regular consultant for the Hindu American Foundation, as well as being a member of the Hindu American Religious Institute near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Vedanta Society.
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YJA CONVENTION 2010 I New Brunswick