Philosophy about East Asia Religions

Monday, September 24, 2018

Jainism

Originates in ancient India, roughly as old as Hinduism (maybe?)

Agama literature serves as foundational texts, 2nd or 3rd century BCE (Axial Age)

24 Tirthankaras: spiritual leaders, “ford/bridge builders”

Most recent, Mahavira, “Great Hero”, contemporary with the Buddha (probably historical)

Parsva, the 23rd probably also historical

Like Buddhism, they deny the authority of the Vedas (a heterodox sect)

Inside Jainism, there are two major sects, but philosophically very similar

Svetambara (“white clad”)

Digambara (“sky clad”)

Svows

Non-violence (ahimsa)

Truth

Non-stealing

Celibacy/Chastity

Non-attachment (a precursor concept for Buddhism)

Ahimsa

The notion of non-violence is all pervasive

What does this include?

No killing humans

No killing of other animals

Avoiding war

No physical violence (not just avoid killing)

Avoid other kinds of violence as well

Emotional (aggressive, angry internal sates)

Verbal

Minimize heartbreak

Do not inflict terror or fear

Violence to other living things

Jains are VERY vegetarian

5 types off beings, corresponding with the number of senses

1 senses plants, water, air, fire, etc

2 senses warms, leeched, etc

3 senses ants, lice, etc

4 senses flies, bees, etc

5 senses humans, animals birds, heavenly and hellish beings

You may only eat 1 sensed creatures

Basically plants

But not all plants, some plants contain many lives

Potatoes and most root vegetables

When you harvest from plants, do it in a way to minimize hard to the plant, and the other living things surrounding it.

Even when you gather water, avoid harming the thing that are living in it.

On cases of unavoidable or unknown, violence, it is fitting to repent: to apologize.

side-note: what is the point of non-violence?

Violence begets more violence (descriptive claims)

Long term investment in peace, even when short term violence might seem more attractive

Some date:

Ghandi in India

MLK in the US

Non-violent revolutions tend to be more successful

The Golden Rule: do unto others as you would want them to do to you (normative claim)

This principle shows in nearly all societies across time and space

There are forms of argumentation for non-violence that are structured like this

Some clarifications from last time:

Jains do not eat eggs

They have too much potential to grow into living things

They are to some degree living things in and of themselves

There Jains who serve in the military / police force, and there is a tradition of violence / killing in self-defense

Minimization of overall harms

Probably just for the lay people, not the lifelong religious folk (monks / nuns)

Violence would still need to occur only in the smallest degrees possible

Concerns:

Does not all of this concern about voiding harms to think things imply pessimism about the human condition?

Perhaps ethical reflection and discipline should be seen as a sign of our advanced nature as reflective beings

Why are Jains so concerned about Ahimsa?

Like hinduism, Jainism contains the concepts of samara, karma, and moksha

Unlike hinduism, Jainism believes in souls

A unique soul for every living thing

A kind of material object, and so is karma

karma, which is usually (always?) thought of as negative, sticks to the soul when we are violent / passionate/ etc.

The weight of Karma prevents us from reaching moksha

This is why the life-style of Jainism is do ascetic: by living a life in which we master the passions, we can shed our karma and achieve moksha

An argument from self-interest

The Jain Symbol

Line of text: “all life is bound together by mutual support and interdependence”

Hard: the word “Ahimsa” surrounded by a wheel with 24 spokes

swastika: 4 quadrants represent four types of being within samsara (hellish beings, non-human animals, humans, heavenly beings)

three dots: parts of the path to enlightenment

Right of faith / perception having a proper picture of the world

Right knowledge: 5 kinds knowledge

Sensory

Scriptural

Clairvoyance

Telepathy

Omniscience (those who are fully enlightened know everything )

Right conduct the Svows

Semicircle and the last dot: Siddhashila, the realm of the enlightened

Siddha: (liberated ones), those who have conquered all of their passions (through ascetic practice)

They exist forever in an enlightened, omniscient states

Another respect of Ahimsa

Intellectual / philosophical

Example: permanence and impermanence

Hinduism embraces permanence

Buddhism embraces impermanence

The intellectual polarization is a kind violence (the Jain way)

Compromise position the wold contains both permanence and impermanence

Jainism’s view of other religions

Broadly speaking, there are three types of view:

Exclusive

“our views are right”

“everyone else is wrong”

“the wrong people will have bad things happen to them”

Inclusive

“our views are right”

“other are people are wrong, at least something”

“but others can be right enough for good things to happen”

Pluralism

“our view are right”

“all / many other views are right too, even if they are really different, and apparently contradictory”

“good things will happen to everyone”

Jainism is an inclusivist religion (for the most part, Asian philosophies tend this way)

Another form of Ahimsa

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