जैन धर्म का केंद्र-बिंदु समता

Summary

The central focus of Jainism, its philosophy, and tradition is equanimity. A key problem of humanity is self-centeredness, where each person thinks from their own center, focusing on personal joys and sorrows. The goal of religion is to move an individual from the self to the universal. Two motivating forces for this are self-interest and altruism. While self-interest can expand from the individual to family, caste, or nation, some religions adopted spirituality to solve human problems, recognizing that attachment to material existence and external objects is the root of all issues. These are transcendental religions. In India, three perspectives are found among such traditions. The Advaita tradition advocates making the self so expansive that everything is included within it, eliminating fear. The Shunyavada tradition holds that ultimate truth is nothing, so there is no basis for ego or attachment. Both rely primarily on logic, not worldly experience. Jainism, however, accepts the reality of the external and internal world as perceived, including diversity and inequality. It sees inequality as relative, arising from distortions despite the fundamental similarity of all souls. The goal of Jainism is to remove the feeling of disparity and establish equanimity towards all beings. The self is not bad; the discriminatory attitude towards others is. For Jain householders, the practice of *samayika* is a daily ritual, meaning the worship or practice of equanimity. For a Jain ascetic, life itself is a vow of *samayika*. This practice of equanimity has two divisions: equanimity in conduct and equanimity in thought. Equanimity in conduct is *ahimsa* (non-violence), the central point of Jain ethics. Equanimity in thought is *syadvada* (the doctrine of conditional predication), the central point of Jain philosophy. *Ahimsa* is defined as causing pain to another's life, driven by selfishness and passion. The ten forms of life include the five senses, mind, speech, body, respiration, and lifespan. Violence includes not only taking life or