Characteristics and Principles of Jainism
The first fundamental principle of Jainism is that man’s personality is dual, which is in form of material and spiritual. According to the philosophy of Jaina, it states that every mundane soul is confined by subtle particles matter called Karma from the beginning (Lal, 2017) . Another principle of Jainism states that man is not perfect which is derived from the first principle (Shah, 2018) . The third principle states that the spiritual nature of man should be able to control his material nature. The final principle of Jainism states that only an individual can separate his own soul and matter combined (Marovich, 2017) .
Jainism’s Perspective on the Soul and Its Integration with the Body
The idea of Jain about the soul varies significantly from those of many other religions. Jiva is the word that comes so closest to soul, which refers to conscious, living being. According to Jain, body and soul are separate and different things (Lal, 2017) . In the understanding of Jain, body is viewed as an intimate container while the conscious being is the Jiva. Once the body is dead, the jiva is reborn into another body to live another life until it realizes its liberation (Marovich, 2017) .
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What are the Beliefs of Jainism?
There are several beliefs of Jainism. Every soul is independent and exists forever. The soul is responsible for what it does, the soul is responsible for the consequences of its actions, the soul can be liberated from the cycle of birth and death, there are some souls which are not liberated since they are not inherently capable, and the soul can evolve towards liberation by following principles of behaviour (Lal, 2017) .
Jains Practice in the World in 21th Century
In the 21st century, the Jain practices meditation whose objective is quite different from Hinduism and Buddhism. Jains also practice what is known as samayika ritual, an undertaking of periodic meditation three times a day by mendicants (Marovich, 2017).
References
Lal, S. (2017). Ahimsa as a Way of Life: Review of Predrag Cicovacki and Kendy Hess, editors. Nonviolence as a Way of Life: History, Theory, and Practice. The Acorn , 17 (2), 150-153.
Marovich, B. E. (2017). Creaturely Becoming: Whitehead and Jainism. Society & Animals , 25 (3), 313-317.
Shah, K. (2018, May). Contribution of Jainism to World Culture. In Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy (Vol. 51, pp. 149-156).
