Post 4 (week 2)

Post 4

Jainism is a very interesting religion that comes out of India.  It has been around for a very substantial amount of time.  Despite its long existence it does not have a very large following composing of about 1 percent of India’s total population.

Jains are strong believers in Karma in other words what comes around goes around or you reap what you sow.   They worship in temples through prayer and they have several idols that represent various different things.  They do not worship the idols per say but the worship and admire what the idols represent.  Jains are very strict vegetarians they do not believe in destroying anything.  In the article that we read went into great detail on what was acceptable and unacceptable to eat.  The reasons that the do not eat any type of animal is because they believe that we should treat everything humanly.  We would not eat ourselves or each other so what gives us the right to do that to other creatures. 

One of the things that I found most interesting is how some of the Jain monks choose not to wear any clothing but are going around in the nude.  The reasoning behind this is they do not want any attachment to any worldly thing.  I think that it is cool that they do not want any attachment to worldly things I would like to think of my self as unattached to worldly things but I guess that I am not as serious or as dedicated to it as these monks. 

In the video on goggle video the man in the video talks about violence.  Jains are extremely nonviolent.  The don’t even believe that having hatful or violent thought is extremely wrong.  The man says that we should have love in our hearts and show others our love, and I have to say that I agree with what this man has to say when it comes to love.  Many Jains have so much love for other creatures that they often sweep the ground before them as they walk in order to prevent stepping on the smallest of creatures.  Many also refuse to wear shoes.