Jains

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Jains
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Jainism

• Off shoot of Hinduism
• Considered a Hindu sect by some
• About 5 million adherents in the world
• Possibly 4000 in North America
• Principle concern The purification of the
  individual soul through asceticism and especially
  non-violence

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History

• Vardhamaana Mahavir (599-527 BC)
• Founder
• Mahavir means great man
• Of noble birth, wealthy, Kshatrya caste
• Married and one daughter
• Experienced disillusionment with luxury and
  wealth
• The 23 Trithankaras ford finders
• Others who attain enlightenment before Mahavir,
  24 more to come

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History

• At 30 he forsook everything and became and
  ascetic.
• Extreme self-denial
• Naked, exposed to the elements, limited
  vegetarian diet
• Allowed insects to eat his body
• Avoided harming any living beingplant or animal

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History

• After 30 years of asceticism he experienced the
  liberation of his soul.
• He understood the universe and mastered the path
  of liberation
• Became a jina from ji Sanskrit word for
  conqueror
• Jainism means those who follow the conqueror.

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History

• Collected a large following of disciples who
  emulated his life.
• Followers retreated to the jungle as monks.

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Teaching

• Humanity and the Soul
• A soul is what is not present in death.
• Soul life jiva all things have jiva.
• Many personal individual souls
• The permanent eternal soul is joined to a
  temporal body of particles.
• Not monistic as Vedanta Hinduism or Buddhism.
  Many distinct beings.

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Teaching

• The contamination of the soul
• Adhering to each unliberated soul (jiva) is ajiva
  which keeps the soul from attaining liberation.
• The goal of the Jain is to purify his soul of
  ajiva.
• Ajiva is often described in physical terms and so
  is closely associated with the body.
• The association of soul with the material body
  leads the soul into worldly situations and
  consequent contamination.

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Teaching

• By nature each soul is pure, possessing potential
  unlimited consciousness, bliss, and energy.
• Souls qualities are restricted by foreign karmic
  matter or karmic particles.
• Transmigration of the soul
• The goal is the purification of the soul in order
  to experience the full consciousness of the
  souls nature.

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Teaching

• Moksha
• Salvation is attain by purifying the soul of the
  defilement of ajiva or karmic matter/particles
  accumulated in ones past and past lives.
• Releasing the soul from its entanglement with its
  material body.

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Teaching

• Karma
• Bad, impurity
• Living a pure life removes karmic contamination.
• Living an impure life brings more karmic
  particles to stick to ones soul resulting in a
  less advantageous rebirth.

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Teaching

• God
• Essentially atheistic
• No creator
• Individual souls may become gods

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Teaching

• Universe
• Eternal 'beginningless beginning to endless end
• A creator of the universe is illogical and
  unnecessary
• Six substances souls, particles of matter,
  space, time, motion, and rest.
• Eternal processes continue according to natural
  laws w/o the need for an omniscient, omnipotent
  being to explain it or maintain it.
• Cycle of improvement and decay.

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Practices

• Many regulations, ascetic
• The Five vows
• Ahimsa
• Truth telling
• Abstaining from theft
• Conquering sexual desire
• Detachment

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Practices

• Ahimsa
• The central guiding principle of Jainism
• Non-violence, or non-harming, non- interference
  toward/with all other living beings
• Contrary to the nature of the pure soul. The
  pure soul is detached from all else.
• Harm (himsa) involves passion, passion involves
  attachment to other things
• The nature of the Soul is also to give thus the
  soul should be compassionate to all living things.

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Practices

• Non-harm
• Mask, broom, strain

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Practices

• Truth-telling
• Absolute Principle of non-Absolutism
• Each person's thinking and opinions are relative
  to their experience and understanding.
• Therefore avoid absolute statements for risk of
  saying what is not true.
• Syadvada Maybe, somehow

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Practices

• Abstaining from theft
• Dont steal
• Never take anything that is not given
• Only what is necessary
• Jains own no property

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Practices

• Conquering sexual desire
• Prohibition of sexual intercourse
• Suppress all fleshy desire

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Practices

• Detachment
• Prohibition against attachment to all things
• Family, his own body, personal identity, name
• Renunciation of all
• Jain sadhus own no property

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Practices

• The Lay person
• Can not attain liberation but may gain a better
  incarnation
• Softened versions of the five vows
• Dont take life needlessly vegetarian
• Set limits to desires and wants to avoid
  acquiring more than is needed. No greed.
• Marital fidelity
• Respect property
• No lying

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Practices

• Meditation
• Achieve balance, passionless experience of the
  pure soul
• Worship the idols of the Tirthankaras to
  experience their qualities
• Bow down to gurus to gain humility
• Turning back from where you dont belong.
  Regular discipline of thought. Self-examination.
• Reciting mantras

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Sects

• Digambara clad in the sky
• Discard all attachments
• Men only
• Naked
• Shvetambara clad in white
• Admit women

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Worldview Comparison

• What are the differences?
• No personal creator
• All life has worth, but no life has worth over
  any other life.
• Worth of life is absolute without exception
• How might you relate the gospel to a Jain?
• Must address the Jain cosmology
• Address the nature of the problem, a personal God
• Salvation - Self-effort, no grace, no savior,
  little hope