We live in a spend thrift universe of continuous giving. Everywhere the sun is radiating its warmth and light. The very breath of life is carried to us upon the air and wind. Clouds and oceans follow the same law to shower upon us their precious waters. Earth cultivates all manner of vegetation from which grain and fruit sprout forth. Our bodies are molded of all these gifts.

What are we giving back to this all providing universe ?

Where there is abundance in our lives, are we sharing it or taking more than our share ?
Though we are receiving its bounty, are we allowing ignorance, fear, apathy, or ego to blind us to the generous heart of our earth ?
Are we saturating the atmosphere, the seas, and the land with deadly wastes and pollutant ?
How long will mother nature continue to bear with our ingratitude?

When blood soaks the land, we label it enemy blood or friend blood, locking up or letting loose our emotions accordingly. In the same way, when the throats of helpless creatures are cut, human minds categorize, rationalize, and explain, cutting hearts off from natural compassion. Where has our human capacity for feeling and empathy gone ?

Short though it is, our time on this planet can be valuable and meaningful, if we choose to discover and live by the laws of life.

War, butchering, and all kinds of killing are abominations, antithetical to life.
When we live in the cocoon of possessiveness, resentment, or cold heartened intellect, we support, whether we mean to or not, the machines of power and domination, exploitation and killing.
We become accomplices in the large-scale destruction of
billions of other human and non human lives who, like us, are equally eager to grow, fulfill their needs, and bring their lives to fruition.

What we need is a new dimension of thinking, a new directive for living. We need to perceive all planetary life as one interdependent family from which no living being is excluded.
We need to experience the plight and pain of all living beings as if it were our own.
Indeed, the pain of others is our own, for the consequences of neglect and apathy cannot be long in coming our way.

Such a philosophy and practice does exist... known as Jainism, it originated thousands of years ago in prehistoric India and was transmitted by twenty-four exemplary individuals who left the well-worn ruts of thinking to discover the causes and cures of violence, Greed, dogmatism, and war in the human psyche and in the world.

Beginning with Adinatha (or Rushabhadeva) and ending with Mahavira (or Vardhamana) who lived from 599-527 B.C., each enlightened master or Jina rediscovered the immortal laws of life, placing Ahimsa or non violence first and foremost among them.

Mahavira matured his consciousness during twelve and a half years of silence, meditation, and fasting practices. The insights he shared during the next thirty years were gathered into forty-five books known as Agamas. Thanks to them, the heart of Jainism has been preserved. In one of the sutras, he spoke of Ahimsa in this way:

Unless we live with non-violence and reverence for all living beings in our hearts, all our humaneness and acts of goodness, all our vows, virtues, and knowledge, all our practices to give up greed and acquisitiveness are meaningless end useless.