Jainism

Jainism

Jainism is a religion and philosophy originated in ancient India. It is now a minority in Modern India, but has branched out to other countries. Jainism is religion that has been practiced over thousands of years. Jains believe that according to the Tattvartha Sutra there are 8,400,000 species of living things - each of which is part of the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth, and is therefore precious. Jains also believe that taking form as human means they preformed good karma in our past life, but the goal of the Jain religion is to achieve liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Jains believe that an immortal and indestructible soul resides within every living being. Under the influence of passions such as greed and hatred, the soul comes under a complex web of karma, or the past deeds of the soul, and suffers repeated birth and death. The effects of karma can only be overcome when the soul achieves liberation. This central teaching of Jainism was made famous in recent times by Mahatma Gandhi, who was greatly influenced by Jain ideas. He made ahimsa the guiding principle of his struggle for social freedom and equality. Ahimsa means more than not hurting others, it means not intending to cause harm, physical, mental or spiritual, to any part of nature, for, in the words of Mahavira. "You are that which you wish to harm."

To begin with the two major things that greatly affect Jains in day to day life, in a good way, are committing to nonviolence and never eating meat. The way that nonviolence affects Jains is by not even allowing bad thoughts to enter in their head. Since anger is a form of violence one may be able to be nonchalant when their frustrated, so that allows Jains to move through their problems quicker.

Karmic history has great importance in Jainism, in which previous births lead to happy or sad lives in our current state. Nevertheless, karma is much more convoluted than the simple saying "what goes around comes around". Though Hinduism believes in this, Jainism takes it to a different level by saying that it is for peacefulness on oneself. If one was bad in their previous life, they are reincarnated into a hellish being, and may become some sort of animal (i.e. goat, pig, dog, and cat). If one was good in their previous life, they are reincarnated into heaven, and are given a good life after. Karma is the way of ridding one from the cycle of birth and death.

Another major philosophy empathy for all life, human and non-human, is central to Jainism. Human life is valued as an inimitable, rare opportunity to reach illumination. To kill any person, no matter what crime he or she may have committed, is considered detestable. The strong vegetarian roots of many non-Jains come from the teachings of Jainism. These teachings were either adapted