Jain Vision Essay Sample

Out of all the world's religions, Jainism is one of the eldest. This system of beliefs is a mixture of strong philosophy with ethics and religious ideas. In contrast to theistic religions like Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, Jainism does not have any particular God. It is a human and self-oriented religion, with its ultimate goal consisting in breaking the limits of suffering i.e. in purifying the own karmic body. The Jain way of achieving a higher state of understanding and consciousness is based on three main pillars or as they are called "three jewels": deep faith, right knowledge, and pure conduct. One of the critical concepts constituting right conduct is called ahimsa. Simply put, it means nonhurting in a broad context. This essay will explore how ahimsa and its ethical implications albeit possessing some flaws are a strong conduct guideline for developed individuals and societies.
The original Jain concept of ahimsa is basically different from our usual understanding of nonhurting. While the concept of nonhurting is developed almost in any religion, in Jainism it is developed the strongest, farther than in Buddhism or Hinduism. When we typically say nonhurting, we presume that we do not do violent acts to humans or animals. Ahimsa is a much wider concept incorporating not only direct, intentional violence but also an indirect form of violence such as hurting someone with our words or doing harm because of the carelessness or neglect. Any actions originating in pride, hatred, greed, prejudice, or desire are considered as the ones making harm to other beings. Even if the actual action did not take place, the sole intention of inflicting harm on another life is considered a violation of ahimsa.
The concept of ahimsa is strongly rooted in the Jain reality paradigm. The main basis for such conduct is the belief that all of the living creatures possess souls and are in this world to help each other. Also, the one causing harm to others worsens his karma, which is the Jainism's vital concept. The concept of karma is the embodiment of Jain perception of life and reality. It holds that each living being has a soul which is bound to karmic mass – the amassment of physical matter, feelings and intentions of a living being. Over the course of life, karma is either purified by the right way life or stained by the life full of desires, passions, and violence. When the soul leaves the body after death, it enters the realm of live according to its karma (if it is bad, then a person might be reborn as an insect, for example). The process of purifying own karma is actually the process of personal development in Jainism and is the reason for ahimsa.
In my opinion, the principle of ahimsa is a great one to follow in everyday life albeit it has some flaws and hardships connected with it. In the real world, it is reasonably hard to stay non-violent or non-responding to violence when it happens everywhere around you. It can be done by either highly developed individual who will cling to it even in the meanest of times or in the developed society, where violence and harm to each other are not of a serious concern. For a layman in a regular society, it would be extremely hard to fully profess such belief. There are two main drawbacks of Jain way of perceiving reality. The first one is its total rejection of violence. Although undesirable, violence is still inalienable to our reality, and it should be coped with. The other one is the belief that liberation can only be attained at death. Such belief renders the life in this realm much less valuable and makes the happiness in this life initially unreachable which is very depressing.