________________
Compassion - The Unifying Idea of
Progress
By Dr. Dan Lyons
ast October, I was invited to speak at
uncaged
the Indian Vegan Festival in Murdeshwar, Karnataka, about Uncaged's campaigns for animal rights. To prepare for the trip, I started to investigate the history of India and the more I learned, the more inspired I became by the culture and ideas of the country. Although I had been vaguely aware of the Jain faith and its underlying philosophy of 'ahimsa', I was now discovering the profound importance and influence of Jain philosophy to the history of not just India, but the whole world. At the festival, my partner Angela and I had the pleasure of meeting Mahersh and Nishma Shah from the Young Jains and learning more about Jainism.
L
YJ ETHICAL YT VOICE
This engagement with Jains opened my eyes to the fact that the animal rights cause and Jainism share many fundamental principles. In this article, I want to explore an intriguing phenomenon: although the animal rights and Jain philosophy stem largely from different cultures, we have in many ways arrived at the same place in terms of how we define 'progress', a definition which reflects our shared underlying values: I hope that by discussing this common ground, the potential for deeper empathy and relationship between the animal rights movement and the Jain community may be realised, which offers hope for the future of humankind and the other animals with whom we share this planet.
It seems to me that both Jains and the animal rights movement recognise that the only valid or meaningful understanding of 'progress' is one that ultimately rests on ethical and spiritual development. This contrasts and, inevitably, challenges the dominant cultural paradigm in countries like the UK, which elevates technological progress and commercial activity as ends-in-themselves. Just as Jains recognise the dangers of attachment to physical objects, animal rights advocates reject the sacrifice of animals in toxicity tests for the sake of new products. We would rather go without as the moral principles of compassion and peace are more important than material gain.
The alignment between Jains and animal rights extends - for me at least - to teleological notions of human
Jain Education International
purpose and wellbeing, which inform our views on what constitutes progress. The reason I devote my life to campaigning for animal rights is that I believe that humans can only achieve their potential and live meaningful lives by seeking to make the world a better place. By 'better' I mean more ethical - more respectful of others and the world around us. If we deny our ability to take moral choices then we deny our very humanity.
At the same time, a concern for others also promotes our own wellbeing. At the everyday level, it is surely significant that those who are violent to non-human animals tend to relate to humans in a similarly abusive way.
Moreover, the concept of animal rights rests on the deeper idea that we are not separate and superior from nature, but intimately connected with it. Egalitarianism implies kinship and relatedness an acceptance that we are natural beings. As the inspirational Satish Kumar, the former Jain Monk and ecological thinker, says:
"Sadly, the human species considers itself as a superior species and, in that, we try to control nature, manipulate nature. The way we treat our animals... forests... our oceans and rivers, and land and soil that appears as if we are at war with nature. And in waging war against nature, we create problems for ourselves, because we ARE nature."
One of the practices that Uncaged campaigns against - animal-to-human transplantation (known as 'xenotransplantation') illustrates the dangerous hubris of the exploitation of animals. There are currently long waiting lists for organ transplants, and with people dying for want of an organ, there is a social demand for solutions to this perceived problem. Many possible solutions exist, such as preventative health measures or increasing the supply of human organs. However, in practice, over the past fifteen years very cruel research has been conducted to try to develop pig organs for transplant, which would represent a whole new category of violence towards animals. Opinion polls show that this is the least popular option, but because xenotransplantation is
For Personal Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
