Introduction:
The eastern religion of Jainism has its origins thousands of years in the past. The principles and laws that Jains adhere to are based upon the teachings of the Jinas, or Tirthankaras- those who have achieved liberation from the cycle of rebirth. There are twenty four of these conquerors for each world cycle; one world cycle consists of hundreds of thousands of years. Mahavira is the most recent and final Jina of our present cycle; born in 599 B.C.E.. Thirty years into his lifetime, he felt that the gods were pushing him into a new reformation of living, different from that of his previous order, Parsvanatha. Thus, Mahavira spent the next twelve and a half years participating in what came to be known as the Great Renunciation. In this time, he resided in a forest, where he eventually renounced all earthly things; his title, his wealth, as well as food and possessions. It was during this period of harsh self-deprivation that Mahavira was convinced that “[the] most essential practise [is] ahimsa…toward every living thing”.
Ahimsa is the governing focal point of Jainism; it is the law of non-violence. It emphasizes the fundamental ideals of compassion, understanding, and respect for all things, as it is viewed that all things, animate or no, contain a jiva (soul). This principle aspect of Jainism is the epitome of equality; forbiddance of harm and wrongdoing to fellow man, animals, and the natural world in its entirety. However, modern society has managed a significant surplus of destruction. The extermination of countless animals and the deterioration of entire forests are testimonies to the ferocity of mankind. Moreover, there are few that would stand with our nonhuman counterparts, and fight against those who seek ...
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...ll nature clearly states that the multitude of unnecessary himsa (violence) originates ultimately from man and his unwarranted dissatisfaction of life. Furthermore, the repercussions of ahimsa are essential in the operation of today’s environmental and animal activist organizations. Greenpeace, PETA, and ALF all exhibit uses of the fundamental axioms of ahimsa; equality of all beings and their essential environments is paramount for sustainability. Though the two former organizations do not formally proclaim their use of Jain principles, the latter accredits much of its current philosophies to the eastern religion and its most recent Jina. Indeed, Jainas, Greenpeace, PETA, and ALF believe it is Mahavira’s likeness that man must strive for if he is to restore balance to the world around him and repair the detrimental damage to provide for the successive generations.
In the journal of Environmentalism as Religion, Paul H. Rubin discuss about how environmental is similar to religion. Rubin want everyone to know that the environment and religion are somehow similar in a way, which they both have belief system, creation stories and original sin.
As one first starts learning about Buddhism, they will learn that the most fundamental guideline of living a meaningful life is to follow the 5 precepts. Fortunately you don’t have to go too deep into these precepts before you come across the first precept of ahimsa, which is the prohibition against the bringing of harm and/or death to any living being.
In ancient East India in 550 BCE, Mahavira, the founder of a religious community called Jainism, was born. He was one of 24 Jinas who obtained enlightenment by freeing their souls of karma through following certain principles of living and refraining from participating in all worldly pleasures. Jains believe that while living, Mahavira wondered naked and mute through India for twelve years. During his journey he was abused and went through hardships that brought him to the new found beliefs of Jainism. It was after this journey that Mahavira took on disciples and began teaching. He was the last great teacher living of the 24 who existed and “in 467 BCE he committed the act of Sallekhana, which is fasting to death.” The purpose of this
Chandragupta Maurya was a man who was very paranoid in his time of power. He greatly feared assassination. His food was always tasted before he consumed anything, and he had a secret police to look after him. There was also a very large army and inspectors. Chandragupta did not even sleep in the same bed more than once in his palace to make sure no one could kill him in his sleep. Finally, after years of ruling, Chandragupta Maurya became too paranoid for his own good and retired from ruling. He then handed over his power to his son, Bindusara. Chandragupta converted to Jainism in his late...
Classical sociological theory teaches that all social phenomena—be it intangible, like an idea or a belief; or tangible, like institutions or a nation’s rights engraved into a written constitution—are interrelated to some extent. Two domains of social life that exert a particularly strong influence on the lives of individuals are science and religion. As dominant forces, both have, throughout history, conflicted with each other in fascinating ways. This paper will consider how the two might be integrated into a single mode of thought. My broad aim is to demonstrate how Mahayana Buddhism can be used to satisfy the primary goal of process philosophy, which combines the otherwise conflicting spheres of science and religious life: "the integration of moral, aesthetic, and religious intuitions with the most general doctrines of the sciences into a self-consistent worldview." (I heretofore refer to this as a "single worldview.") Doing so will first require an examination of the core tenets of Buddhism and the debunking of a popular misconception of the faith—the idea that Buddhism is an atheistic tradition. Next, I will consider how the tenets of Buddhism—chief among them, the idea of "emptines...
...he first to establish in 1884 the antiquity of Jainism as an independent and pre-Buddhistic religion on the basis of the data available from the Pali Canon. Buddhist scriptures record philosophical dialogues between Buddha and Udaka Ramaputta, and the first of several teachers that young Siddartha Gautama studied with before his enlightenment. Buddhist scriptures attest that some of the first Buddhists were in fact Jains who converted, but were encouraged by the Buddha to maintain their Jain identity and practices. The complexities, differences and similarities of these religions make religious tolerance in India a necessity. Though Hinduism is still the primary religion of modern India there are still those that practice Jainism and Buddhism; continuing the historic fight against the oppressive caste system of Hinduism.
In Buddhist ideas, all creature are created equal; the poor and the rich, the disabled and the able-bodied, human beings and animals, are all lives, make no distinctions between the high and the low. As an honorable Buddhist monk, the Dalai Lama knows the true essence among different lives very well, even in the modern word with advanced technology such as genetic engineering. Therefore, “the issue is no longer whether we should or should not acquire knowledge and explore its technological potential. Rather, the issue is how to use this new knowledge and power in the most expedient and ethically responsible manner” (Dalai Lama 134). As getting to know more about biology, people recognize that all lives are made up of flesh, blood, and bones. However, people have no rights to kill other lives by using the newest knowledge because ethical standards guide people to use the social constituted knowledge morally. With the given scientific evidence, more people believe that all lives on the earth have emotions, and they should be treated equally to human beings. Undoubtedly, those experiments on animals have made great contributions to genetic engineering, which have saved many people’s lives. However, by enjoying the achievements, people should reflect on themselves whether they respected those animals’ lives lost in experiments. Furthermore, since people usually say they are now living in an “open” world, what does the word “open” mean? Is “open” means people can do anything they want without worrying about others’ feelings? The answer is “no,” because “‘open’ meant two things: first, anyone, in principle, could contribute. Second, all of the content would be made freely available” (Poe 353). While most information is available on the Internet, if the contributors’ range is widened to all lives, people will find that both animals and humans can make contributions to technological developments. For
The Theravada school of Buddhism known to be the most conservative, or orthodox, branch of Buddhism, is practiced throughout south Asia (Whittemore, “The Branches of Buddhism”). This includes Thailand, where Theravada Buddhism has a direct influence of on government. Theravada Buddhist views on gender roles and women have shaped their legal status in ways that hinder the enforcement of both international human rights law and domestic laws prohibiting trafficking and the sex trade (Peach, 220). The denigration of women in Buddhist teachings facilitates women’s involvement in the sex trade by conveying attitudes that through prostitution women fulfill their role expectations as sexual and inferior beings (Peach, 218). In Theravada Buddhism, Women are
... our way when we are trying to do something such as deforestations. We should respect living creatures in our world because they have a life they should enjoy. People never want to see the dark side of an industry which is why society doesn’t seem to care or be informed. What this reminds me of personally is the show Scooby Doo which is about monsters and teenagers investigating them, trying to figure out what it is and at the end of every show it’s always a human which gives a powerful message because at the end of the day humans are the monsters, are we the monsters today? We need to open our eyes before it's too late. Life is valuable and we need to cherish every moment.
Rajneeshpuram was a cult from the 1980’s which was located in The Dalles, Oregon and led by Chandra Mohan Jain, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh or Osho. He was born in India and lived his early life there, traveling throughout and speaking publicly about his spiritual philosophy. He was infamously known for his free opinions on sexuality and was considered to be the “sex guru” (Vasant Joshi, 1982) by press all across the world. His first set of followers called themselves the neo-sannyasins and followed him to his first developed ashram in Pune, India. Due to his provocative teachings and continuing growth of the neo-sannyasins, attention was escalating in regards to government officials and community members. In attempts to avoid any legal problems, Rajneesh and the neo- sannyasins fled to Oregon State in 1981 and established what is now known as Rajneeshpuram. Although Rajneesh had a following of several thousand people, he, as a guru, was far from legitimate. His main focus in life was money, his elected leaders was full of criminals and his teachings were inexcusable.
Jainism is an ancient religion from India that believes that the way to liberation is to live a life of harmlessness. It is a religion of self-help; there are no gods or spiritual beings that will help people. Most Jains live in India and England. The aim of Jain life is to achieve liberation of the soul. Jains believe that animals, plants, and humans all have living souls, and that each of these souls is considered of equal value and should be treated with respect and compassion. People who practice Jainism are very strict vegetarians. There are three guiding principles of Jainism which are right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct. Fasting is very common in Jain spirituality. They fast during special times during the year such as festival and holy days and is done by Jain women more than Jain men. They sometimes even fast for months at a time; some even fast till death. This is known to be different from suicide; the intention is to purify the body, and remove all thought of physical things from the mind. Pilgrimage plays an important role in Jain life. One of the most famou...
The first of the Five Precepts of Buddhism is to restrain from destroying or harming living creatures. Life
...sort of axiology that last-person arguments are meant to establish. All creatures imaginable are valued and are attributed with at least one sense, from human beings (five-sensed) to leeches (two-sensed) to clods of earth (one-sensed). Any intentional act of violence against any of these is considered sinful, even an act done for a good cause (e.g., to feed human beings). It is odd, then, that Jainism is merely dismissed in environmentalist literature (Nash 1989, 70; Kalupahana 1989, 248; Curtin 1992, 141 n. 12).
Hinduism has been a religion for a long time, the Buddha was a Hindu before seeing how terrible the world was, he then found the religion Buddhism. Since the creator of Buddhism was Hinduism as a child, it is only expected for the two religions to be similar. While the two religions are similar they are also quite different as seen by their creation stories. The creation stories are these religions way of explaining how the world started. With most religions the creation story gives the most basic beliefs of the religion as this is where their religion supposedly starts its life. The two stories this paper focuses on is no different, and since they technically have the same origin, it can be obvious as to how they would be similar. However, in the case of the idea of social order and moral decline, they can be different too.
Let’s start with the physical. Don’t injure others, and most certainly, do not kill others. (For many this idea extends to animals, leading to vegetarianism.) When citing examples of ahimsa in action, most people easily point to Ghandi and Martin Luther King Kr. as examples of nonviolence. They were able to make huge change without harming others. We don’t need to cast a stone to get a point across.