Jeffery D. Long > Quotes

“Hindus cross religious boundaries in this easy way because of the widespread belief that all religions are one, or that they all lead to the same ultimate goal.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“anekāntavāda is a very useful tool for arguing for the view – taught in my own religious tradition of Ramakrishna Vedānta – that there is truth in all religions, and that we should view different religions and philosophies not as contradictory and competing, but as expressing complementary views of different aspects of an infinitely complex reality.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“In contrast with the American Constitution, which seeks to separate the realms of religion and government, the Constitution of India is set up to protect group rights – in particular, the rights of religious minorities.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“As mentioned above, the Brahmanical, Vedic traditions were not as deeply rooted in the northeastern area in which the śramaṇa movement emerged. Perhaps the śramaṇa movement is not an internal critique, a ‘Protestant Reformation’, but instead continues an indigenous, pre-Vedic philosophy.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“[The] main thrust of … Jainism is nonviolence (ahiṃsā). One should not injure another through his mind, speech, and body. If one has a desire for possession (parigraha) then there is violence (himṣā). To practice ahiṃsā, one has to control his desires. Uncontrollable desires give birth to many negative things. To win over these negative aspects is the first step towards the practice of ahiṃsā. One can be a person of nonviolence … by being a householder [i.e. while nevertheless being a householder]. One begins the practice of ahiṃsā by purifying his chitta [mind]. The definition of himṣā is not limited to killing others. Anger, force, harsh words (even if they are truths), deceit, accumulation, negligence, etc. are all different forms of himṣā.165 Several”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Now, while this means the non-Jain is considerably further from the highest level of realization necessary for liberation than the Jain ascetic, with the Jain layperson being somewhere in the middle, it also means the Jain ascetic is more culpable should she or he actually destroy a life form. The Jain ascetic, to put it bluntly, knows better, so his or her level of responsibility is higher. Non-Jains do not know better. So while our destruction of life certainly involves some negative karmic effect, it is not as great as what would be involved for a Jain monk or nun who, say, in a fit of anger, were to squash an insect. Jain monks and nuns are at a more advanced stage than non-Jains. But their situation is also more precarious. They have further to fall, as it were.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“In other words, karma is understood in Jainism to be a material substance which produces the universal law of cause and effect, which produces experiences in our souls according to certain regular patterns – an understanding unique to the Jain tradition.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“This brings us, then, to the Jain theory of error. The worst philosophical error one can commit, and which is the root of all error, is ekāntatā – one-sidedness, or absolutism.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“According to the Jain account, karmic matter is attracted to the jīva by the arising of passions within the jīva. The passions are of two fundamental kinds: attraction (rāga) and aversion (dvesa) though neutrality or indifference can also be mentioned as a third.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Sallekhanā is an ancient practice. The first mention of it occurs in the earliest of the Jain scriptures, the Ācārāṅga Sūtra (Ācārāṅga Sūtra 1.7.8). A Brahmin convert to Jainism named Skandaka Kātyāyana undertakes it with the permission of Mahāvīra. It is described as a highly ritualized process, with elements reminiscent of a Vedic sacrifice.172”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“The Kalpasūtra, a text from the second or first centuries BCE, is the first to list Mahāvīra as the 24th Tīrthaṅkara and to discuss the lives of some of the other Tīrthaṅkaras in detail.70 This text is publicly recited during Paryuṣaṇa, the Rainy Season Festival, which honors the cultivation of ascetic practice.71”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“According to Jainism, all jīvas, all souls, throughout their beginningless existence, have been bound to karmic matter.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Religious identity in India has not invariably had a fixed ‘all or nothing’ exclusivity attached to it and there can be identified consistently throughout South Asian history a commonality of religious culture which has operated across what are ostensibly sectarian divides. So, for a Jain lay-person to worship occasionally or regularly a markedly Hindu deity such as Hanumān or Bhairuṇjī does not betoken abandonment of Jainism and consequent adherence to Hinduism, but rather an easy participation within and desire to confirm linkage to a South Asian religious world richly populated with figures redolent of power, prosperity and transcendence who are accessible to all.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Karma is a natural law.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Rebirth as a woman is therefore an unfortunate state, since it prevents one from engaging in monastic practice to the degree necessary for attaining liberation – from the practice of monastic nudity.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“karma governs all action.16 It can be likened to Newton’s Third Law of Motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. But traditional Indic worldviews do not make the sharp distinction, so typical of modern Western thought, between the realms of fact and value. Karma thus manifests not only in the form of physical laws, such as gravity, but also as a moral law governing action.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo Daro … have … unearthed statues, seals and figurines in naked meditative poses – sitting in what appears to be a lotus position or meditating in a standing kayotsarga position – poses used by later Tirthankaras iconography, and unique to the Jain tradition even today. Based on these seals, some historians have suggested a possibility that a philosophy of the purification of soul by ascetic and meditation practices existed at least 5000 years ago during the Indus Valley period.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“The unity of souls, according to Jainism, is a unity of nature or essence. All souls are ‘one’ in the same sense in which all apples are ‘one’. There is not one ‘supreme apple’ of which all actual apples are different manifestations or appendages. But all apples share certain characteristics that mark them off as apples.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“As one evolves spiritually, one realizes that the actions that lead to suffering in others are the ones that lead to suffering in oneself. Similarly, the actions that lead to happiness in others are the ones that will lead to one’s own happiness. It is a reciprocal process. If one wants to be happy, one will do those things that lead to the happiness of others. And if one wants to avoid suffering, one will avoid creating suffering in others.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Ahiṃsā is the absence of even a desire to do harm to any living being, in thought, word, or deed.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all assert that egotism - and by logical extension materialism and consumerism - lies at the root of all suffering and that a life spent in the constant pursuit of physical comfort and pleasure is ultimately a life spent in vain.

Karmic "reward" and "punishment" is a wholly impersonal process, we are each responsible for our own joy and suffering. There is no divine judge. It is up to us to follow the path that leads to ultimate freedom, or not.

Jain ethics, like Buddhist ethics, is best seen as a process of character transformation rather than a set of rules.

Some actions will lead naturally to suffering and others will lead to happiness. As one evolves spiritually, one realizes that the actions that lead to suffering in others are the ones that lead to suffering in oneself. Similarly, the actions that lead to happiness in others are the ones that will lead to one's happiness. It is a reciprocal process. If one wants to be happy, one will do those things that lead to the happiness of others. And if one wants to avoid suffering, one will avoid creating suffering in others.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“When American college students read about an act such as ritual self-starvation, they thus assume that the community in which this act occurs is in fact recommending it for everyone, at least as an ideal.”
― Jeffery D Long, Jainism: An Introduction

“I bow before the worthy ones [the Jinas, or Tīrthaṅkaras]. I bow before the perfected ones [all those who have attained mokṣa]. I bow before the leaders of the Jain order. I bow before the teachers of the Jain order. I bow before all Jain monks in the world.”
― Jeffery D. Long, Jainism: An Introduction