AHC: Make Jainism as influential as Buddhism in the West

Ganesha

In the last 110 years, Buddhism has become quite influential in Western culture. There are over 5 million non-immigrant-descended Buddhists in Western countries across the globe, especially in the United States and Europe. Many more Westerners associate Buddhism with concepts like karma, yoga, and nirvana.

Your challenge is to make Jainism, another Indian religion, just as influential as Buddhism in the Western world.

Jainism is one of the oldest religions on earth, having been founded in roughly the 9th century BCE (although Jains believe their faith has always existed and will always exist).

Here are the fundamental principles of Jainism:

Wikipedia said:
-Every living being has a soul.
-Every soul is potentially divine, with innate qualities of infinite knowledge, perception, power, and bliss (masked by its karmas).
-Therefore regard every living being as you do yourself, harming no one and being kind to all living beings.
-Every soul is born as a heavenly being, human, sub-human or hellish being according to its own karma.
-Every soul is the architect of its own life, here or hereafter.
-When a soul is freed from karmas, it becomes free and attains divine consciousness, experiencing infinite knowledge, perception, power, and bliss (Moksha).
-The triple gems of Jainism ("Right View, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct") provide the way to this realisation. There is no supreme divine creator, owner, preserver, or destroyer. The universe is self-regulated, and every soul has the potential to achieve divine consciousness (siddha) through its own efforts.
-Non-violence (to be in soul consciousness rather than body consciousness) is the foundation of right view, the condition of right knowledge and the kernel of right conduct. It leads to a state of being unattached to worldly things and being non-judgmental and non-violent; this includes compassion and forgiveness in thoughts, words and actions toward all living beings and respecting views of others (non-absolutism).
-Jainism stresses the importance of controlling the senses including the mind, as they can drag one far away from true nature of the soul.
-Limit possessions and lead a life that is useful to yourself and others. Owning an object by itself is not possessiveness; however, attachment to an object is possessiveness. Non-possessiveness is the balancing of needs and desires while staying detached from our possessions.
-Enjoy the company of the holy and better-qualified, be merciful to afflicted souls, and tolerate the perversely inclined.
Click to expand...

Cheers,
Ganesha
 

TxCoatl1970

As one of the aforementioned Western Buddhists- Jainism could very easily find an audience in the West. Look at Transcendental Meditation and how it caught on in the 1970's when folks were shopping for something "cleaner" than contemporary Christianity.
You could easily see Jainism take off in Europe and sophisticated American circles in the 1920's after the miserable massacre of WWI as well.
One thing that might help is a missionary to India comes back to England or America and starts preaching that Jainism and Christianity have a lot in common.

My impression is that Jainism is a more rigorous devotion to keeping oneself morally pure (vegetarianism, pacifism, etc) than most schools of Buddhism demand of their lay practitioners. Ironically, it would probably need a lot of social reinforcement and strike Western folks as a cult not a philosophy. YMMV on that one.

The problem you run into is that when folks adopt an "exotic" religion or philosophy, they often look for how it fits what they want for themselves not looking at the context that philosophy or religion is for folks steeped in its traditions for generations.
 

Ganesha

TxCoatl1970 said:
As one of the aforementioned Western Buddhists- Jainism could very easily find an audience in the West. Look at Transcendental Meditation and how it caught on in the 1970's when folks were shopping for something "cleaner" than contemporary Christianity.
You could easily see Jainism take off in Europe and sophisticated American circles in the 1920's after the miserable massacre of WWI as well.
One thing that might help is a missionary to India comes back to England or America and starts preaching that Jainism and Christianity have a lot in common.

My impression is that Jainism is a more rigorous devotion to keeping oneself morally pure (vegetarianism, pacifism, etc) than most schools of Buddhism demand of their lay practitioners. Ironically, it would probably need a lot of social reinforcement and strike Western folks as a cult not a philosophy. YMMV on that one.

The problem you run into is that when folks adopt an "exotic" religion or philosophy, they often look for how it fits what they want for themselves not looking at the context that philosophy or religion is for folks steeped in its traditions for generations.
Click to expand...

What makes you think the 1920s are more plausible than the 1950s? You have some very interesting points here.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 

Kishan

Jainism appear to be more conservative and stricter in its adherence to the principle of non-violence. Even in India it has moved closer to Hinduism that many people view it as a sect of Hinduism like Arya Samaj or Brahmo Samaj.
In the early years Jainism didn't spread outside India as it did not get sponsors like Ashoka, the Great. Buddhism, especially the Theravada form, is comparatively simple and could become popular. Jainism is more complex and it could be why it remained less popular among common people.
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

People talk about how russia would never have gone muslim because it would mean giving up pork and beer.

Jainism means you cant slap mosquitos or use bug kiling sprays.

I dont see it being popular in most of north america...
 

Ganesha

Dathi THorfinnsson said:
People talk about how russia would never have gone muslim because it would mean giving up pork and beer.

Jainism means you cant slap mosquitos or use bug kiling sprays.

I dont see it being popular in most of north america...
Click to expand...

I think this is an important point, which was also brought up before. It's tough to be a fully practicing Jain - you have to avoid stepping on any ants, making noises loud enough to hurt birds, etc, etc.

Cheers,
Ganesha
 
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