This evening the Jain perspective is presented by Smita Shah (in photo above with Gerry Gardiner, one of the regular attendees). Smita is President of Jain Samaj Europe, the first woman to hold this position. She is also Treasurer of Leicester Council of Faiths.
Smita asks for a show of hands from those of us who have previously encountered Jainism or Jains. Since this is a relatively knowledgeable and experienced group, everyone raises a hand. She asks us to keep our hand up if we've visited the Jain Centre on Oxford Street; very few hands go down.
Mention is also made of the current exhibition at Phoenix Square Film & Digital Media Centre: "Let's Celebrate 365" contains some striking photos of Jain festivals in India, which have never before been seen on this scale in Leicester. Smita takes a moment to explain the significcance of the images on show there. In amongst the photos of far-flung places, "Let's Celebrate 365" also contains a photograph taken in Leicester's Jain Centre, during the celebration of Diwali there.
Most of us here this evening (20 in all) have already been given a copy of the Council of Faiths leaflet on Jains, which we're expected to have read in preparation for this session. Smita reiterates some central principles and practices of Jain belief and lifestyle, all of which serve to move the individual soul closer to moksha (liberation from the recurring cycle of life, death and rebirth) and nirvana (enlightenment, eternal bliss). These include:
- Ahimsa: non-violence
- Satya: telling the truth
- Asteya: not stealing
- Aparigrapha: minimisation or non-accumulation of possessions
- Anekantvad: belief that multiple viewpoints are the true picture
Among these principle and practices, ahimsa is paramount. It extends beyond human life alone, to encompass all creation. It is based on what Jains call paraspargroho jivanan - interdependence of all life.(I wonder if it could be said to be analogous to "biophilia" - a term I heard for the first time earlier today.) Ahimsa entails more than just staying one's own hand from committing harm. It's deeper, more subtle and more profound than that. It encompasses violence or harm done by speech or thought, including hypocrisy, back-biting and the like. Ahimsa also requires us to refrain from encouraging, condoning, celebrating or applauding any kind of violence by anyone on any other forms of life.
In a social and political sense, the most significant contribution ahimsa has made in history would arguably be when Mahatma Gandhi adopted it as the foundation of his campaign to free India from British rule.
While the core principles of Jain life are applicable at all times and in all places, exactly how they are put into action may vary. Smita acknowledges the effect of such factors as historical context, geographical setting, cultural influences, family background and the influence of different kinds of people on our upbringing - all these would play a part in the moral and spiritual dimension of our lives. A Jain approach to life acknowedges the tension between the physical and the spiritual. There is clear differentiation among Jains between monks, nuns and saintly individuals on the one hand - who are strictly committed to an absolute code of practice - and lay people and householders on the other, who have to live in a more pragmatic fashion, often making conscious and informed compromise with their principles for the sake of daily living in the material world.
Jains believe in reincarnation - that the individual has to go through 84,000 life cycles. Deeds determine the condition into which one is born, according to karmas stored up from lives already lived that attach themselves to the soul. The four arms of the swastika (a tradition Jain symbol) represent the four potential realms for rebirth: heaven, hell, the human or animal kingdoms.
Bearing in mind these various principle and practices, Smita asks us to consider the following moral dilemma:
A Jain family lives in the UK and has a toddler in the house. Their household is infested with pests - mice in paticular, which can be dangerous for the baby. What should the famiy do? How do they get rid of the mice? Would it be any different if there ws no baby in the house or if it was infested with ants rather than mice?
Here are some of the comments arising from the group discussions:
Since Jains believe in reincarnation and the transimgration of souls, you might be killing your grandmother if you were to kill the mice; or in the next life, it might be you going into that mousetrap.
One should do one's best to do the right thing, but still one has to be pragmatic.
Some present describe how they've dealt with similar problems and consider how what they did might match up to the demands of Jainism.
Even the idea of moving away and leaving the problem to the next occupiers of the house would not be in accord with the law of ahimsa, since all you'd be doing would be to pass on responsibility to others for the harm that will be done.
There's some discussion about the relative worth of different kinds of life - for example, the need from other cultural and spiritual perspectives to eradicate disease and eliminate bacteria, viruses etc. there's no time to go into that tonight, but the potential for longer and deeper discussion is recognised.
The most extreme form of the question immediatly above arose in one of the groups where it was mentioned that a scientist had recently published a paper claiming to have identified fossil microbes in meteorites. NASA and other scientific and astronomical agencies are investigating this claim. If this were to be proved and it were to become commonly accepted that meteorites could carry this basic form of life around the solar system - and a large one was found to be on a collision course with Earth, would a firm Jain position prohibit us from attempting to avert this collision as it might destroy the microbes, while risking the death of countless creatures on earth, perhaps even risking human extinction?
Many Jains are known to work in medicine; how does ahimsa impinge upon following that sort of career or study path? Would a Jain doctor, nurse or consultant seek to work in a particular field that doesn't involve the destruction of other organisms in order to improve the health of patients?
As a closing note, Smita tells us that the sincerity of penitence for having to do harm to other creatures in a situation like this has, of itself, led to the liberation and enlightenment of individuals, through ego-less empathy with the suffering of another creature.
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