“Religion is morally neutral like, say, a knife. When you use it to cut sandwiches, then a knife is a good thing; but if you use it to stick in someone’s guts, then… (Brewer, 2006, p. 1)”
Ethical disagreements within a religious culture sometimes become sharp enough to cut it into pieces. Hindu Vedic rituals required animal sacrifice, which Jains considered immoral (Molloy, p. 193). Instead of having blood on their hands, Jains preferred to practice a peaceful coexistence with all living beings. Thus, the Jain symbol of the right-hand reminds people to stop and think about the right course of action. Written in the palm of this symbol is the word “ahimsa” or non-violence (Daryapurkar, 2008, p. 1). Jains instead focus their energies on the struggle within. In fact, the name Jain comes from the Sanskrit word “Jina” or conqueror (Molloy, p. 195). Like Hindus, Jains live a life geared toward moksha; however, they have refined the process into their own unique way of avoiding karma and “conquering” the soul. Although Jainism is a religion that views itself as timeless, the most prominent and influential figure among the twenty-four Tirthankaras was Mahavira and lived approximately between 599 to 468 B.C.E. (Molloy, p. 194). It is interesting to note that although Mary Fisher and Lee Bailey offer the translation of the word, “Tirthankaras” as “bridgebuilder (p.94)”, Michael Molloy uses the term “ford finder (p. 194)” to suggest that this way is not a dry one. Jains esteem Mahavira’s exemplary behavior to be the quintessence of conquering the soul and much of the respect they receive today stems from immersing their minds in his ideologies.
To conquer the soul, the Jain must first understand its nature. Over the centuri...
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...3, 2011, from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jake-brewer/desmond-tutu-and-the-reli_b_21961.html
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1.) Intro: I decided to focus my Religious Ethnography on a friend whom I recently have become close with. Adhita Sahai is my friend’s name, which she later told me her first name meant “scholar.” I choose to observe and interview Adhita, after she invited me to her home after hearing about my assignment. I was very humbled that she was open to this, because not only was it a great opportunity for this paper, but it also helped me get to know Adhita better. I took a rather general approach to the religious questions that I proposed to the Sahai family because I didn’t want to push to deep, I could tell Hinduism is extremely important to this family. Because this family does not attend a religious site where they worship, I instead listened to how they do this at home as a family instead.
Fisher, Mary Pat. " Chapter 5: Buddhsim." Living Religions. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2005. 150-62.
Hitchens, Christopher. God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. New York: Twelve, 2007. Print.
I will now examine what it means to be religious with a critical enquiry into Buddhism, Hinduism and
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Thus, I thought that trying out the Jain diet for my project would prove to be an interesting yet challenging experience to take part in so that I can gain a little bit of insight into what life as a Jain might be like. Additionally, the man in the well parable also resonated with me. Even though the man has fallen down a well and will probably be attacked by the snakes or swallowed by the python, he is still focused on the honey dripping from the bees. This made me think deeply about how illogical it is for a person to be so caught up with the trivial aspects of life when there are far more serious issues at hand, like impending death in the case of the
Hopfe, L. M., & Woodward, M. R. (2007). Religions of the World (10th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.