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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