Ahimsā paramo dharmah

Ahimsā paramo dharmah Non-violence is the highest form of

religious conduct

Vardhamana Mahavira Jina – or “Victor”

Therefore his followers are called “Jains”

Tírthańkaras “Bridge Builders”

The 24 Tirthankaras

Jainism Jain teaching is claimed to

be uncreated and eternal, being reactivated by the ‘ford-makers’ in unending cycles› In the present cycle, historical

evidence clearly reaches back to the last two of these teachers, Mahāvira (24th) and Pārśva (23rd), but it is evident that these teachers were reviving, restoring, and re-forming a thread of ancient thought who origins allegedly lie in Indian prehistory and is claimed to have links to the Harappa Culture

Jainism The aim of Jain

spiritual practice is to liberate the soul (jivā) by freeing it from accumulated karma › Every soul is

potentially divine and can aspire to achieve moksha by following a course of purification and discipline demonstrated by the Tīrthankaras

Kaivalyaone’s own efforts are the only path to liberation

A Famous Depiction of the Buddha practicing Austerities (i.e. fasting – a primary Jain ascetic

practice)

Jainism At the heart of

Jainism lies a radical asceticism based on five great vows which monks and nuns follow and which the laity attempt to the best of their ability

The Five Vows Ahimsā satya

› speaking the truth Asteya

› not taking anything not given

brahmacharaya › chastity

aparigraha › detachment from place,

persons, and things – non-possession

The Five Vows

Core Beliefs Every living being has a

soul› Every soul is

potentially divine, with innate qualities of infinite knowledge, perception, power, and bliss (masked by its karmas)

› Regard every living being as you do yourself, harming no one and being kind to all living beings

Core Beliefs Every soul is born as a

heavenly being, human, sub-human or hellish being according to its own karmas

Every soul is the architect of its own life, here or hereafter.

When a soul is freed from karmas, it becomes free and attains divine consciousness, experiencing infinite knowledge, perception, power, and bliss

Core Beliefs Right Faith (right vision),

Right Knowledge and Right Conduct (triple gems of Jainism) provide the way to this realization› There is no supreme

divine creator, owner, preserver or destroyer

› The universe is self-regulated and every soul has the potential to achieve divine consciousness (siddha) through its own efforts

Core Beliefs Navakar Mantra is the fundamental prayer in Jainism and can be

recited at any time of the day Ṇamō arihantāṇaṁ - I bow to the arihants Ṇamō siddhāṇaṁ - I bow to the siddhas Ṇamō āyariyāṇaṁ - I bow to the acharyas Ṇamō uvajjhāyāṇaṁ - I bow to the teachers Ṇamō lōē savva sāhūṇaṁ - I bow to all the saddhus Ēsōpan̄caṇamōkkārō, savvapāvappaṇāsaṇō

Maṅgalā ṇaṁ ca savvēsiṁ, paḍamama havaī maṅgalaṁ › This five-fold bow (mantra) destroys all sins and obstacles

and of all auspicious mantras, is the first and foremost one.› णमो अरि�हंताणं णमो सि�द्धाणं णमो आयरि�याणं णमो उवज्झायाणं णमो लोए �व्व �ाहूणं

ए�ोपंचणमोक्का�ो, �व्वपावप्पणा�णो मंगला णं च �व्वेसि�ं, पडमम हवई मंगलं

Core Beliefs Praying by reciting this mantra, the

devotee bows in respect to liberated souls still in human form (Arihantas), fully liberated souls (Siddhas), spiritual leaders (Acharyas), teachers (Upadyayas) and all the monks (sarva sadhus)› By saluting them saying "namo

namaha", Jains receive inspiration from them to follow their path to achieve true bliss and total freedom from the karmas binding their souls

Core Beliefs In this main prayer, Jains do

not ask for any favors or material benefits› This mantra serves as a

simple gesture of deep respect towards beings who are more spiritually advanced

› The mantra also reminds followers of the ultimate goal of attaining moksha

Core Beliefs Non-violence (to be in soul

consciousness rather than body consciousness) is the foundation of right view, the condition of right knowledge and the kernel of right conduct› It leads to a state of being

unattached to worldly things and being nonjudgmental and non-violent; this includes compassion and forgiveness in thoughts, words and actions toward all living beings and respecting views of others (non-absolutism)

Self-Control Jainism stresses on the

importance of controlling the senses including the mind, as they can drag one far away from true nature of the soul

Limit possessions and lead a life that is useful to yourself and others› Owning an object by itself is not

possessiveness; however attachment to an object is

Non-possessiveness is the balancing of needs and desires while staying detached from our possessions

Self-Control Four things are

difficult for a soul to attain: › 1. human birth› 2. knowledge of the

laws governing the souls

› 3. absolute conviction in the philosophy of non-violence

› and 4. practicing it in every day life activities

Self-Control It is therefore important not to

waste human life in evil ways. Rather, strive to rise on the ladder of spiritual evolution› The goal of Jainism is liberation

of the soul from the negative effects of unenlightened thoughts, speech and action. This goal is achieved through clearance of karmic obstructions by following the triple gems of Jainism Right Faith (right vision) Right Knowledge and Right Conduct

There are 4 million Jains today in India, UK, Canada and US

By the 1st century CE, the community had split into two main groups

Digambara › "clad only in the four directions“, or naked› Found mostly in Southern India

Shvetāmbara › "white clad“› Found mostly in Western and Northern

India› By far, the majority

Disagreements between Digambaras and Shvetāmbaras

Digambaras› do not wear clothes because they believe clothes are like

other possessions, increasing dependency and desire for material things, and desire for anything ultimately leads to sorrow.

› believe that women cannot attain moksha in the same birth

Shvetāmbaras› wear white seamless clothes for practical reasons and

believe there is nothing in Jain scripture that condemns wearing clothes. Sadhvis (nuns) of both sects wear white.

› believe that women may certainly attain liberation and that Mallinatha, the 19th Tirthankara, was female.

Disagreements between Digambaras and Shvetāmbaras

Digambaras › Believe that Mahavira was not married › Believe that Mahavira renounced clothes› Engage in much stricter austerities

Shvetāmbaras› Believe the princely Mahavira was married and

had a daughter › Believe that Mahavira was conceived by a

brahmin couple, and the embryo was later moved to the womb of a Ksatriya woman

Jain Metaphysics

The universe is divided in three worlds. We live in the central world. The underworld, occupied by demons and demigods, consists of colored layers with the darkest at the bottom. The earth's surface forms the middle world. Above the earth is the celestial world, with 16 layers for beings born in the kalpa heavens without Jain insight and the 14 layers for those with insight.

Jain Metaphysics

On top of all this, beyond the heavens, is the crescent-shaped apex of the universe, a region permanently occupied by souls who are already liberated (not in this picture, unfortunately)

Jain development The diffusion of Jainist practice is fairly diverse, but there is

little to no disagreement about the fundamentals of Jain doctrines and philosophy. Jain philosophy, which claims to reject the authority of the Vedas (while still accepting karma, souls, etc. – does reject caste), is known as the nāstika school › It is characterized by a realistic classification of being

and a theory of knowledge which has connections with Sāmkhay and Buddhist thought

Jain philosophers have made many distinctive contributions to Indian philosophy, particularly the doctrines of nayavāda and syādvāda, which together form the doctrine of the manysided-ness of reality

Jain Logic Anekanta – ‘Multisidedness’ the doctrine of non-

absolutism Every view is right in some respects

Syadvada – the doctrine of conditional statement No view is right in every respect

› The Seven Conditional Predications : Relatively, a thing is existent Relatively, a thing is non-existent Relatively, a thing is both existent and non-existent Relatively, a thing is indescribable Relatively, a thing is existent and is indescribable Relatively, a thing is non-existent and is indescribable Relatively, a thing is existent, nonexistent and

indescribable.

Jain Logic According to Jain

metaphysics, the reality is constituted by innumerable material and spiritual substances, each of which is the locus of innumerable qualities› Not only are there

innumerable substances, each with innumerable quality, but each quality is susceptible to an infinite number of modifications

Jain Logic Clearly ordinary

knowledge (non-omniscient) cannot comprehend this complex reality, for ordinary knowledge is limited not only by the limited power of the senses and reason, but also by the perspectives adopted by the knower as well as by the conditions of the space, time, light, and so on

Jain Logic Recognizing the incredibly rich and complex nature

of reality, Jains developed the concept of notion of the "Many-sidedness" (anekant) of existence in opposition to their opponent’s claims that Brahman alone, because it is permanent and unchanging, is ultimately and absolutely real or that, as the Buddhist claimed, nothing is permanent, and the changing process are the only reality› This concept of the many-sidedness of existence enabled

Jain thinkers to affirm both permanence and change › What things are in the substance are in themselves, as

substance, is permanent› But the forms or modes of these substances are

continuously changing.

Jain Logic Emphasizing the limits

of ordinary knowledge, Jainism developed the theory that truth is relative to the perspective (naya) from which it is known› Furthermore, because of

reality is many sided and knowledge true only from a limited perspective, all knowledge claims are only tentative (syat) having the form, "X may be Y," rather than "X is Y."

Limiting Perspectives The limitations of

knowledge are illustrated with a popular Jain story, involving five blind man and elephant

Limiting Perspectives When it is understood

that knowledge is limited by the particular perspectives from which id is achieved, it becomes easy to see that knowledge claims are conditioned by the limitation of the perspective that is assumes and should always be expressed as only tentatively true

Limiting Perspectives Just as the blind men

should have been more circumspect, saying for example, "Standing here, feeling the object with my hands, it feels like a winnowing fan. It may be a winnowing fan," so should everyone understand that their knowledge claims should be asserted only conditionally

Conditional Predications. Analyzing the logic of conditional assertion, the Jains came up with a sevenfold schema for making a truth claim about any particular object. For example, the following assertions are possible with respect to, say, the temperature of a glass of water:› It may be warm (to someone coming from the cold) › It may not be warm (to someone coming from a very warm room it

felt cold) › It may be both warm and not warm, depending upon certain

conditions. › Independent of all conditions, the water is indescribable (all

knowledge rest on certain conditions) › Indescribable in itself, the water may be said to be warm subject

to certain (a combination of 1 and 4) › Indescribable in itself, the water may be said not to be warm,

subject to certain conditions (a combination of 2 and 4). › Indescribable in itself, the water may be said to be warm and not

warm depending upon certain conditions (a combination of 3 and 4).

Conditional Predications.

The reason why the last three assertions all begin with the claim "Indescribable in itself" is that every substance known and described possesses an infinite number of qualities -- each of which also possesses an infinite number of modifications› Although ordinary knowledge reveals some of

these qualities and modifications, it cannot reveal them all

› Thus, all descriptions of reality are only partial › The substance itself, with its infinite qualities

and modifications, can be fully known only when all the limitations to knowledge are overcome.


The sevenfold scheme of conditional assertion forces us to recognize the partial and incomplete nature of ordinary human knowledge

This is very important initial step in overcoming the passions, because desire, hatred, pride, anger and greed stem from partial one-sided understanding of things dogmatically presumed to be the whole truth

How many times have we embarrassingly realized the inappropriateness of our anger, jealousy, pride, or greed when we came to see the "full picture"?


Greed for money vanishes when it is understood that money can’t buy health, friends or happiness

Excessive pride gives way to humility when we come to appreciate the wonderful qualities and accomplishments of others

Anger and hatred disappear when we realize that other objects, situations, or persons are no threat to us

To the extent that we appreciate that the knowledge from which the destructive passions arise is partial, we are encouraged to restrain ourselves until our understanding increases.

Awakening Vision Understanding the partial

nature of ordinary knowledge makes Jains more appreciative of the knowledge of the Ford-makers (Tirthankars)

It encourages faith in their teachings and motivates efforts to emulate their lives in the hope of achieving similar omniscience, purity, and bliss

This in turn awakens a deep longing for true insight and knowledge which may serve as a catalyst to activate the soul’s natural inclination to freedom and direct its energies toward recovery of its omniscience.

Jain Logic The significance of

this Sevenfold judgment is that our knowledge, regarding anything is relative; everything exists from the point of view of its own substance, space, time and form and it does not exist from the point of view of others substance, space, time and form

Jain Logic A Jar, for instance,

exists from the point of view of its substance › clay

its space› the room in which it is

its time › the present moment

and its form or mode› which is its particular

shape- having narrow neck,

broad, belly, red color, etc.

Jain Logic The Jar does not exist

from the point of view of another substance, say silver or gold, another room, another time and another shape etc› When we affirm these two

different standpoints (existent and non-existent) successively we get the third judgment a 'Jar' is both existent and non-existent

Jain Logic If we want to describe

its existence and non-existence simultaneously, than Jar becomes indescribable, i.e., neither real nor unreal › This is the fourth

judgment

Jain Logic Form of fifth

judgment is that, from a particular point of view, the Jar exists and it is also indescribable › Because there is no

one word which can describe its existence and non-existence simultaneously

Jain Logic Similarly the

statement that the 'Jar' does not exist, and is also indescribable, forms the sixth judgment

Relatively, 'Jar' exists, also it does not exist and somehow it is indescribable › This is the seventh

judgment.

Jain Logic These three forms of

judgments are really combinations of indescribable with 'is' 'is not' and 'is' and 'is not' respectively

Jain Logic The same theory

can also be applied to the soul › The soul exists

from the aspects of its own substance, space, time and form and while from the point of view of anther's substance, non-soul, it does not exist

Jain Practice The three Jewels

› Right insight› Right knowledge› Right conduct (the

Five practices) Non-violence Truthfulness Non-stealing Sexual Purity Non-possession

Opportunities for Women Mahavira willingly ordained women Thousands of women have become

nuns Unlike in Theravada Buddhism, where

the ordaining of women has died out, Jains continue the practice to this very day

Jain Iconography

Symbol for unity, the four directions combined, the bridge between monks/nuns and the laypeople and between women and men

Mudra meaning peace and non-violence

The three dots above the swastika represent the three jewels of Jainism: Samyak Darshan (Right Faith), Samyak Jnan (Right Knowledge), and Samyak Charitra (Right Conduct)

Ahimsā paramo dharmah

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