My journey with religion has been a conflicted one. I've grown up being made to believe in a certain set of rules. Never one to disobey unless I could help it, I kept following them. Somewhere in the middle I began asking questions. Some answers made complete sense, some did not. I realised there are actual reasons behind things that I did - things that I thought were just rituals but actually mean something more.
If you look at religion only from a restrictive and ritualistic point of view, I can see why it would begin to seem like a burden. Any imposition begins to feel like a burden for that matter - human beings like choice, and freedom. But to me, the key is to begin looking beyond the rituals and rules and start unraveling the philosophy behind them.
With Jainism, for some reason, this is particularly hard to do. I don't fully understand it, and whatever is told to me in the texts, I feel like isn't proof enough. It's like knowing the solution to a minimisation problem, but not being able to solve it yourself. Reading a text to understand the math would definitely help, but spiritual texts without scientific experimentation done yet to prove it is correct is something I have trouble believing in.
On the other hand, there are selective rules. We eat dried turmeric and dried ginger. That's because they have strong medicinal properties. Why only dried? Because for some reason that changes its nature? Why not dried carrot or dried garlic powder? Because they aren't medicinal enough? No. Because replacement medication for them is available?
But hold on, the concept is to reduce attachment from food in the first place.
Idea 1 is saying that all plants and animals and everything in this world has life.
Idea 2 is saying that I want to minimise how much pain I cause to other things in this life.
Idea 3 says: look here, if you want to reduce pain, eat only because you have to. Not for the taste, but for survival.
Which takes you to the fourth concept of: now that you are eating only because you have to for survival, let's reduce the amount of things that we eat, and the amount of times that we eat, to harm the least amount of things we possibly can.
And mixed among all of this comes a classification where somehow you know that while all life is equal, some living beings are more conscious, and you'd rather eat the least conscious ones to cause lesser pain.
I found out today that you would rather cut an apple open and leave it for a while to let the consciousness go away and then eat it, than eat it by itself. I do not understand this. At the end of the day, I am eating an apple. But apparently thought matters here.
There are lots of things that I don't understand, but I can empathise with Idea 1, 2, 3, and 4. I wish there was scientific proof to back the classification and consciousness theory. It seems there is, but I haven't read it, and I would want to conduct experiments if possible to validate (or invalidate) the same. But I don't know if that is possible yet.
I just wish people taught Jainism with those principles. I have been taught the right way to some level, in the sense that I would never harm a living thing if I had a choice. I like letting things be. I have love for mosquitoes, even though they gave me malaria thrice, and feel that they have every right to live.
I feel like it is important to be a good human being. It is important to help others. You must be kind, generous, respect everyone, have control over yourself, and peace of mind.
And that is religion to me.
Kanksha
There is power in choosing something. And helplessness in not knowing what choice to make.
On another note, I hope you all choose to stay home.
If you look at religion only from a restrictive and ritualistic point of view, I can see why it would begin to seem like a burden. Any imposition begins to feel like a burden for that matter - human beings like choice, and freedom. But to me, the key is to begin looking beyond the rituals and rules and start unraveling the philosophy behind them.
With Jainism, for some reason, this is particularly hard to do. I don't fully understand it, and whatever is told to me in the texts, I feel like isn't proof enough. It's like knowing the solution to a minimisation problem, but not being able to solve it yourself. Reading a text to understand the math would definitely help, but spiritual texts without scientific experimentation done yet to prove it is correct is something I have trouble believing in.
On the other hand, there are selective rules. We eat dried turmeric and dried ginger. That's because they have strong medicinal properties. Why only dried? Because for some reason that changes its nature? Why not dried carrot or dried garlic powder? Because they aren't medicinal enough? No. Because replacement medication for them is available?
But hold on, the concept is to reduce attachment from food in the first place.
Idea 1 is saying that all plants and animals and everything in this world has life.
Idea 2 is saying that I want to minimise how much pain I cause to other things in this life.
Idea 3 says: look here, if you want to reduce pain, eat only because you have to. Not for the taste, but for survival.
Which takes you to the fourth concept of: now that you are eating only because you have to for survival, let's reduce the amount of things that we eat, and the amount of times that we eat, to harm the least amount of things we possibly can.
And mixed among all of this comes a classification where somehow you know that while all life is equal, some living beings are more conscious, and you'd rather eat the least conscious ones to cause lesser pain.
I found out today that you would rather cut an apple open and leave it for a while to let the consciousness go away and then eat it, than eat it by itself. I do not understand this. At the end of the day, I am eating an apple. But apparently thought matters here.
There are lots of things that I don't understand, but I can empathise with Idea 1, 2, 3, and 4. I wish there was scientific proof to back the classification and consciousness theory. It seems there is, but I haven't read it, and I would want to conduct experiments if possible to validate (or invalidate) the same. But I don't know if that is possible yet.
I just wish people taught Jainism with those principles. I have been taught the right way to some level, in the sense that I would never harm a living thing if I had a choice. I like letting things be. I have love for mosquitoes, even though they gave me malaria thrice, and feel that they have every right to live.
I feel like it is important to be a good human being. It is important to help others. You must be kind, generous, respect everyone, have control over yourself, and peace of mind.
And that is religion to me.
Kanksha
There is power in choosing something. And helplessness in not knowing what choice to make.
On another note, I hope you all choose to stay home.
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