|
|
|
The Living Cosmos of Jainism: A Traditional
Science Grounded in Environmental Ethics
Christopher
Key Chapple
 N
THE ARISTOTELIAN SYSTEM of defining life, animals are grouped into genus and
species. According to Aristotle, “Of animals, some resemble one another in all
their parts, while others have parts wherein they differ. . . . By ‘genus’ I
mean, for instance, Bird or Fish; for each of these is subject to difference in
respect of its genus, and there are many species of fishes and of birds.”1
For several hundred pages, Aristotle goes on to describe the many particular
varieties of animals, providing an encyclopedic collection of information.
Jainism views animals and life
itself in an utterly different light, reflecting an indigenous Asian scientific
analysis that yields a different definition of the soul, the human person, the
structure of the cosmos, and ethics. This alternate vision of reality, as will
be explained below, results in the perception of a living cosmos and inspires
an ecologically sensitive response on the part of adherents to the Jaina faith.
This essay will focus on two
primary aspects of Jaina teachings in light of two contemporary Western
ecological thinkers.2
The first is its unique cosmology, which will be compared to the cosmological
insights of contemporary science as presented by Brian Swimme. The second is
the Jaina assertion that the seemingly inert, nonsensate world abounds with
sensuousness. The Jainas posit that all the myriad living beings, from a clod
of dirt or a drop of water to animals and humans themselves, possess one
commonality: the capacity for tactile experience. This “living world”
perspective will be discussed in light of Thomas Berry’s call for understanding
the earth as a “communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” By
animating the universe, the Jaina story of science lends itself to an enhanced
personal concern for the larger environment or ecosystem.
The Jaina definition of life
extends far beyond the standard dictionary usage of “that property of plants
and animals which makes it possible for them to take in food, get energy from
it, grow, adapt themselves to their surroundings, and reproduce their kind: it
is the quality that distinguishes a living animal or plant from inorganic
matter or a dead organism.”3
The Jaina religion holds that the manifold parts of the world, including the
elements themselves, contain “touch, breath, life, and bodily strength.”4
This view can lead to a deeper appreciation of human reciprocity with the
things of the world through the senses.
JAINA COSMOLOGY: A UNIVERSE PERMEATED WITH LIFE
Stories of cosmology ground the human person within the
world. They explain the place of the individual within the larger context of
social and physical realities. In ancient India, as articulated in the Rgveda,
the person or purusa was regarded as a reflection of the world itself in
its great immensity: eyes were said to correspond to the sun; the mind was
correlated with the moon; breath with the wind; feet with the earth. This
particular cosmology asserts a link between the microphase and the macrophase;
by seeing the universe as reflective of and relating to body functions, one
sees oneself not as an isolated unit but as part of a greater whole. The Jaina
tradition developed a parallel story of the structure of the cosmos, complete
with the image of a great female whose body symbolizes the entire system.
However, whereas the texts of the early Vedic tradition remain somewhat vague
about the place of individual life force in this process, Jainism develops an
intricate accounting for the journey of each life force (soul or jiva),
which is said to be eternal, not created by any deity, and ultimately
responsible for its own destiny.
Jainism provides one of India’s
most thorough attempts to encapsulate a comprehensive worldview or cosmology
that integrates the place of the human person within the continuum of the
universe. The philosopher Umasvati, who lived in the second or third century
C.E., developed a cosmological system that is accepted by both major branches
of Jainism, the Digambaras and the Svetamabaras. It attempts to explain the
place of the human being in a great continuous reality. Jaina cosmology
describes a storied universe in the shape of a female figure. The earthly realm
or middle world (manusya loka) consists of three continents and
two oceans. Animals, including humans, can be found there. Below the earth are
seven hells. Above the earth, eight heavenly realms are arrayed. The ultimate
pinnacle of the Jaina system, symbolized at the top of the head of the cosmic
person, consists of the state of liberation, the siddha loka.
Human beings who have successfully led a religious life achieve this through
the release of all karmic bondage. One cannot attain this state from the
heavenly or hellish realms; only through a human birth and a life lived well
according to spiritual precepts can this final abode be gained.
According to Umasvati’s Tattvartha
Sutra, 8,400,000 different species of life exist.5
These beings are part of a beginningless round of birth, life, death, and
rebirth. Each living being houses a life force or jiva that occupies and
enlivens the host environment. When the body dies, the jiva seeks out a
new site depending upon the proclivities of karma generated and accrued during
the previous lifetime. Depending upon one’s actions, one can either ascend to a
heavenly realm, take rebirth as a human, animal, elemental, or microbial form,
or descend into one of the hells as a suffering human being or a particular
animal, depending upon the offense committed.
The taxonomy of Jainism, which
will be discussed in greater detail below, places life forms in a graded order
starting with those beings that possess only touch, the foundational sense
capacity that defines the presence of life. These include earth, water, fire,
air bodies, microorganisms (nigodha), and plants. The next highest order
introduces the sense of taste; worms, leeches, oysters, and snails occupy this
phylum. Third-order life forms add the sense of smell, including most insects
and spiders. Fourth-level beings, in addition to being able to touch, taste,
and smell, also can see; these include butterflies, flies, and bees. The fifth
level introduces hearing and is further divided into categories of those
nonsentient and sentient. Birds, reptiles, mammals, and humans dwell in this
life realm.6
Jainism posits a cosmological
view that at first glance seems similar to that put forth in Ptolemy’s theory
of the spheres and Dante’s Divine Comedy. At the base of
this cosmos can be found various regions of hell. In the central realm is the
surface of the planet, on which reside the five elements (earth, water, fire,
air, space), living beings, and humans. Above this realm extends a sequence of
heavenly worlds. At the pinnacle of this cosmos exists a domain of liberated
beings who have risen above the vicissitudes of repeated birth in the lower,
middle, and higher realms. In spatial orientation and its theory of moral
consequences, it seems to evoke Dante’s system of hell, purgatory, and heaven.
Depending on one’s actions, one earns a berth in one of the three domains.
However, if we look more closely
at this system, its theories of space, time, and matter are more subtle than
may first seem apparent. First, Jainism identifies two primary categories of
reality: living and nonliving. Living reality, or jiva, is
broadly defined as dynamism and suffuses what in precontemporary physics would
be considered inert. Each jiva is said to contain consciousness, energy,
and bliss. Earth, water, fire, and air bodies (which comprise material objects
such as wood or umbrellas or drops of water or flickers of flame or gusts of
wind) all contain jiva, or individual bodies of life force. The category
of nonliving “things” includes properties such as the flow of time and space
and the binding of matter known as karma or dravya onto the jiva.
The nature of this karma determines the course of one’s embodiment and
experience. Negative karma causes a downward movement, both in this present
cycle of birth and death and in future births. Positive karma releases the
negative, binding qualities of karma and allows for an ascent to higher realms,
either as a more morally pure human being or as a god or goddess. Ultimately,
the Jaina path of purification through its many strict ethical precepts may
culminate in joining the realm of the perfected ones, the siddhas.
These liberated souls have released themselves from all karma, particularly due
to their commitment to total harmlessness (ahimsa), and dwell in a state
of eternal consciousness, energy, omniscience, and bliss.
In this cosmological system,
one’s station in life can be understood in terms of one’s degree of effort in
following ethically correct patterns of life as taught by the Jaina
Tirthankaras, or spiritual leaders. The world of nature cannot be separated
from the moral order; even a clod of earth exists as earth because it has
earned its particular niche in the wider system of life processes. A human’s
experience includes prior births as various animals, microorganisms, elemental
entities, and perhaps as a god or goddess. To see, recognize, and understand
the world is to acknowledge one’s past and potential future. Though the Jaina
insistence on the uniqueness of each individual soul does not lend itself to an
ultimate vision of interconnected monism, it nonetheless lays the foundation
for seeing all beings other than oneself with an empathic eye. In past or
future births, one could have been or could become a life form similar to any
of those that surround one in the vast cosmos.
THE STORY OF CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGY
The contemporary story of the universe as told by
physicists and cosmologists is complex and varied, requiring an understanding
of higher mathematics and a reliance on sophisticated instruments such as
electron microscopes and telescopes that penetrate deep into distant galaxies.
Though many interpreters of science such as Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan have
summarized various theories about the origins and structure of the universe,
few have attempted to create a world of meaning from this raw data. However,
Brian Swimme, a noted scientist, has attempted to make sense of the insights of
modern physics and examine the implications of this newly discovered world
order for human behavior.
In their observations of the
behavior of matter and energy, planets and galaxies, Einstein and Hubble
calculated that the universe flared into existence some fifteen billion years
ago. From that time and point of origin, all things blasted away from one
another. The stuff of stars continues to move apart and, over the course of
fifteen billion years, as-yet uncounted galaxies continue to move outward.
Simultaneously, everything retains a part of the original being while it
continues to move from the point of origin.
Furthermore, the space that
separates all these discrete masses of atomic material continues to generate
evanescent particulate matter that constantly emerges and then dissolves. Even
empty space is not empty but carries what Swimme describes as the
“all-nourishing abyss.” As he describes it,
| |
The usual process is for particles to erupt in
pairs that will quickly annihilate each other. Electrons and positrons, protons
and anti-protons, all of these are flaring forth, and as quickly vanishing
again. Such creative and destructive activity takes place everywhere and at all
times throughout the universe. The ground of the universe then is an empty
fullness, a fecund nothingness. Even though this discovery may be difficult if
not impossible to visualize, we can nevertheless speak a deeper truth regarding
the ground state of the universe. First of all it is not inert. The base of the
universe is not a dead, bottom-of-the-barrel thing. The base of the universe
seethes with creativity, so much so that physicists refer to the universe’s
ground state as “space-time foam.”7 |
This account of the materiality of the cosmos abounds in
mystery, unpredictability, and dynamism. Like the Jaina system of transmutation
of life forms, this primal energy constantly seeks new expression.
Both the story of contemporary
cosmology and that of Jainism allow for awe and respect for materiality.
According to Swimme, our deadened view of the material has led to the blight of
consumerism, in which ultimate meaning in life is mistakenly sought in the
accumulation of things. This has resulted in lives of loneliness, depression,
and alienation. He writes:
| |
Consumerism is based on the assumption that
the universe is a collection of dead objects. It is for this reason that
depression is a regular feature in every consumer society. When humans find
themselves surrounded by nothing but objects, the response is always
loneliness. . . .8 |
For Swimme, the remedy for this angst can be found in a
rediscovery of awe through appreciation of the intricacy and beauty of the
material world, from the complexity of the meadow to the splendid grandeur of
the Milky Way. Swimme writes:
| |
Each person lives in the center of the
cosmos. Science is one of the careful and detailed methods by which the human
mind came to grasp the fact of the universe’s beginning, but the actual origin
and birthplace is not a scientific idea; the actual origin of the universe is
where you live your life. . . . “The center of the cosmos” refers to that place
where the great birth of the universe happened at the beginning of time, but it
also refers to the upwelling of the universe as river, as star, as raven, as
you, the universe surging into existence anew.9 |
In this vision of the human place within the cosmos, each
individual, each context holds ultimate meaning in its immediacy and its
ongoing participation in the process of co-creation. As centers of creativity,
all beings, all particles, play an important, integral role in the greater
scheme of things. While retaining a unique and unencroachable perspective, each
point of life holds a commonality with all others as a result of their shared
moment of origin fifteen billion years ago.
In some ways, this vitalistic
account of creation and reality bears similarities to the Jaina tradition, as
well as notable differences. The fundamental disagreement lies in the premise
that the world began in the single moment of the Big Bang or Flaring Forth.10
Jainism, like Buddhism, asserts the eternality of the universe and rejects the
notion of an initial creation moment. However, just as Swimme contends that the
consumerist obsession with “dead” objects leads to depression, in Jainism the
abuse and manipulation of materiality leads to a thickening of one’s karmic
bondage, guaranteeing a lower existence in this and future lives. Swimme
suggests that the things of the world be regarded as a celebration of the
originary moment of creation, that people turn their attention to the beauty
and mystery of creation as an antidote to the trivialization of life brought
about by advertisements and the accumulation of material goods. Jainism
similarly asserts that things share a commonality in their aliveness, which
must be acknowledged and protected. Through respect for life in all its forms,
including microorganisms and the elements, one can ascend to a higher state of
spiritual sensitivity.
Traditional Jaina cosmology and
contemporary scientific accounts of the workings of the universe have
implications for the development of ecological theory. Both systems place value
on the natural order. Both systems have the potential to evoke the affective
dimension of human responsiveness. Both systems develop an ethical view that
calls for greater awareness of one’s immediate ecological context. Swimme’s
system offers a prophetic critique of unbridled consumerism and its consequent
trivialization and deadening of the material world. Jainism develops a specific
code of behavior that seeks to respect the life force in its various forms,
including its material manifestations.
Swimme’s summary explanations of
contemporary cosmology present the central notions of Hubble’s cosmological
discoveries in a succinct and poignant manner, not unlike the Sutra style
employed by Umasvati to provide a Jaina account for the structure of reality.
These two systems as presented by Swimme and Umasvati carry an inherent ethical
and perhaps teleological message. Swimme explains the universe in an attempt to
wrest humans from their blind allegiance to a numbing materialism that regards
the things of the universe as dead and inert. Jainism explains the universe
through a theology of spiritual liberation. Both provide an occasion to view
the world as a living, dynamic process that, in the contemporary context of
environmental degradation, requires protection and care. The particularities of
Jaina biology might be used to enhance one’s sense of the universe as a living
process of multiple subjectivities rather than as a chaotic assemblage of inert
materiality.
THE HIERARCHY OF LIFE IN JAINA TRADITION
The Acaranga Sutra, the earliest
known Jaina text, describes a world suffused with life. In relating the life
story of Mahavira, the twenty-fourth great teacher, or Tirthankara, who lived
in the fourth or fifth century B.C.E., the text states that “Thoroughly knowing
the earth-bodies and water-bodies, and fire-bodies and wind-bodies, the
lichens, seeds, and sprouts, he comprehended that they are, if narrowly
inspected, imbued with life.”11
From this perception of the vitality of all things as articulated by Mahavira,
Jainism developed an extensive theory of karma to account for the existence of
various life forms. According to Jaina karma theory, each life form will
eventually take on a new existence as part of the ongoing process of samsara,
to be halted only when one, as a human being, attains spiritual liberation (kevala).
Mahavira laid out a series of
rules to assist one along the path to liberation. These rules were designed to
minimize and eliminate karma through a careful observance of nonviolent
behavior. Mahavira instructs his monks and nuns to avoid harming life in its
myriad forms through various methods. These include explicit instructions for
when and what and how to eat; when and how to travel; where and when to
defecate; and from whom to accept food, as well as lists of various activities,
including attendance at wedding ceremonies, to be avoided.12
All these rules, as well as the various preferred professions for laypersons,
are to be observed in order to prevent harm to living beings. In fact, Mahavira
even exhorts his monks and nuns not to gesture or point because “the deer,
cattle, birds, snakes, animals living in water, on land, in the air might be
disturbed or frightened, and strive to get to a fold or refuge, thinking ‘the
Sramana [monk] will harm me.’”13
This profound respect for the natural world distinguishes Jainism among the
world’s religious traditions as potentially the most eco-friendly.
In the second part of the Acaranga
Sutra, Mahavira addresses his monks and nuns on the topic of
forest preservation. This brief meditative advice encapsulates what could be
seen as a textual foundation for the development of an activist Jaina
environmentalism. It also shows the timelessness of human greed and
exploitation of the natural world. Mahavira tells the monks and nuns to “change
their minds” about looking at big trees. He says that rather than seeing big
trees as “fit for palaces, gates, houses, benches . . . , boats, buckets,
stools, trays, ploughs, machines, wheels, seats, beds, cars, and sheds” they
should speak of trees as “noble, high, round, with many branches, beautiful and
magnificent.”14
This indicates that Mahavira regarded trees as inherently valuable for their
beauty, strength, and magnificence and that he advised his followers to turn
their thoughts from materiality by reflecting on the greater beauty of sparing
a tree from the woodsman’s ax.
In later Jaina literature,
various authors describe the living world with a great deal of care and
precision. For instance, Santi Suri, a Svetambara Jaina writer of the eleventh
century, provides elegant descriptions of living beings, beginning with the
earth beings and concluding with various classes of deities and liberated
souls. In the Jiva Vicara Prakaranam, a text of
fifty verses, he lists types of life and frequency of appearance, and cites an
approximate lifespan for each. For instance, he states that hardened rock can
survive as a distinct life form for twenty-two thousand years; “water-bodied
souls” for seven thousand years; wind bodies for three thousand years; trees
for ten thousand years; and fire for three days and three nights.15
Each of these forms demonstrates four characteristics: life, breath, bodily
strength, and the sense of touch.16
The attention to detail given to
the elemental realm of one-sensed beings distinguishes the medieval Jainas as
closely observant scientists. Their descriptions include fundamental
information regarding geology, meteorology, botany, and zoology. Santi Suri
describes the one-sensed realm with great precision, extending from the earth
through water and fire and air to the plant kingdom. For the Prthivi Kayika
Jivas, or Earth Body Souls, he offers the following
description:
| |
Crystalline quartz, jewels, gems, coral,
vermilion, orpiment, realgar, mercury, gold, chalk, red soil, five-colored
mica, hard earth, soda ash, miscellaneous stones, antimony, lava, salt, and
sea-salt are the various forms taken by the earth-body souls.17 |
The numerous types of stone and soil listed indicate that
the Jainas were keen observers of geological formations, careful to distinguish
the characteristics of color, density, and hardness.
Santi Suri’s descriptions of the
various forms of water are similarly perspicuous, listing “underground water,
rainwater, dew, ice, hail, water drops on green vegetables, and mist as the
numerous varieties of Water-bodied Souls.”18
Santi Suri similarly provides an exhaustive list of various forms taken by
Fire-bodied Souls: “Burning coals, flames, enflamed cow dung, fire reflected in
the sky, sparks falling from a fire or from the sky, shooting stars, and
lightning constitute Agnikaya Jivas.”19
The various wind bodies are listed as follows: “Winds blowing up, winds blowing
down, whirlwinds, wind coming from the mouth, melodious winds, dense winds,
rarefied winds are the different varieties of Vayu Kayika Jivas.”20
Descriptions of various plant genres then follow, with precise detail given for
plants with fragrance, hard fruits, soft fruits, bulbous roots, thorns, smooth
leaves, creepers, and so forth. Lists are offered to restrict or endorse the
use of specific plants, with special attention paid to avoiding undue harm to
plants that harbor the potential for even greater production of life forms.
Two-sensed beings, possessing
touch and taste, are said to live twelve years and include conches, cowries,
gandolo worms, leeches, earthworms, timber worms, intestinal worms, red water
insects, and white wood ants, among others.21
Three-sensed beings live for forty-nine days and include centipedes, bedbugs,
lice, black ants, white ants, crab-lice, and various other kinds of insects.22
These beings add the sense of smell. Four-sensed beings, which add the sense of
sight, live for six months23
and include scorpions, cattle-bugs, drones, bees, locusts, flies, gnats,
mosquitoes, moths, spiders, and grasshoppers.24
At the top of this continuum reside the five-sensed beings, which add the sense
of hearing and can be grouped into those that are deemed “mindless” and those
who are considered to be sentient. This last group includes the denizens of
hell, gods, and humans. Various life spans are cited for five-sensed beings,
which Santi Suri describes in great detail: land-going, aquatic, sky-moving,
and so forth. The detailed lists by Santi Suri and his later commentators
present a comprehensive overview of life forms as seen through the prism of
Jainism.
The Jaina worldview cannot be
separated from the notion that the world contains feelings and that the earth
feels and responds in kind to human presence. Not only do animals possess
cognitive faculties including memories and emotions, but the very world that
surrounds us can feel our presence. From the water we drink, to the air we
inhale, to the chair that supports us, to the light that illumines our studies,
all these entities feel us through the sense of touch, though we might often
take for granted their caress and support and sustenance. According to the
Jaina tradition, humans, as living, sensate, thinking beings, have been given
the special task and opportunity to cultivate increasingly rarefied states of
awareness and ethical behavior to acknowledge that we live in a universe
suffused with living, breathing, conscious beings that warrant our recognition
and respect.
Various authors within the
Western biological, philosophical, and psychological disciplines have similarly
argued for the possibility that animals possess cognition and that the world
itself cannot be separated from our cognition of it. Few have committed
themselves to the very radical Jaina notion that the elements possess
consciousness, though some environmental thinkers (such as Christopher Stone)
have argued for the legal standing of trees. But, as discussed in the following
section, Thomas Berry has argued that a heightened responsiveness to the earth
is essential for the full development of human consciousness.
THE NEW STORY OF THOMAS BERRY: A CALL FOR SENSITIVITY TO
LIFE
Thomas Berry has advocated the telling of a new story
that allows us to reinhabit the earth with a greater awareness of the fragile
balance of life systems. He writes:
| |
The human species has emerged within this
complex of life communities; it has survived and developed through
participation in the functioning of these communities at their most basic
level. Out of this interaction have come our distinctive human cultures. But
while at an early period we were aware of our dependence on the integral
functioning of these surrounding communities, this awareness faded as we
learned, through our scientific and technological skills, to manipulate the
community functioning to our own advantage. This manipulation has brought about
a disruption of the entire complex of life systems. The florescence that
distinguished these communities in the past is now severely diminished. A
degradation of the natural world has taken place.25 |
Berry suggests that, with the waning of traditional creation stories and
functional cosmologies, we must develop a new story that can effectively
replace them and introduce a new integrated worldview. This worldview must
account for the workings of the universe, inspire awe at its grandeur, and
prompt the earth’s citizens into an appropriate response to enhance the
sustainability of the earth. Drawing from the pioneering insights of the Jesuit
geologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Berry suggests an embrace
of the cosmological story emerging from the new science. In his focus on the
notion of a fixed point of creation and his orientation toward an almost
eschatological prophetic voice, Berry’s work seems well grounded in the
Jewish/Christian/Islamic tradition. Yet in other ways, it is similar to and
clearly informed by various aspects of Asian, African, and tribal traditions.
For the past twenty years, Thomas
Berry has written and lectured on the topic of the emerging ecozoic age. Taking
note of the tremendous harm caused to the environment during the twentieth
century, he observes that we have lost touch with the natural world, that we
have become callous toward the magnificent universe that supports and nurtures
us. During a plenary address to the American Academy of Religion in 1993, Berry
stated:
| |
We hardly live in a universe at all. We live
in a city or nation, in an economic system, or in a cultural tradition. We are
seldom aware of any sympathetic relation with the natural world about us. We
live in a world of objects, not in a world of subjects. We isolated ourselves
from contact with the natural world except in so far as we enjoy it or have
command over it. The natural world is not associated with the very meaning of
life itself. It is little wonder that we have devastated the planet so
extensively.26 |
The causes of the rift between humans and nature are
numerous, layered, and storied. As noted by Lynn White, the religious
traditions of the West find their roots in an entrenched anthropocentricism
that places emphasis on dominion over nature. As Berry has written, the concern
with redemption in Western religious traditions leaves little room for an
appreciation of the natural world, which is seen as subsidiary to the interests
of human comfort. The exploitive mentality of New World settlement, the rise of
industrialization in the eighteenth century, and the explosion of consumerism
and technology in the twentieth century propelled the human into a new
relationship with nature. Berry writes:
| |
Here it is necessary to note that planet Earth
will never again in the future function in the manner that it has functioned in
the past. Until the present the magnificence splashed throughout the vast
realms of space, the luxuriance of the tropical rainforests, the movement of
the great whales through the sea, the autumn color of the eastern woodlands;
all this and so much else came into being entirely apart from any human design
or deed. We did not even exist when all this came to be. But now, in the
foreseeable future, almost nothing will happen that we will not be involved in.
We cannot make a blade of grass, but there is liable not to be a blade of grass
unless we accept it, protect it, and foster it.27 |
We have entered into a new phase
of Earth-human relations, wherein the human effectively has conquered nature.
The now submissive earth relies upon the human for its continuance. The earth
has been bruised by the abundance of radioactive waste and the ever-present
threat of nuclear conflagration. The sky has been fouled with emissions from
automobiles and factories. Human and industrial waste have polluted our rivers
and lakes. Life itself has become imperiled.
As this separation takes place,
humans lose their intimacy with the natural world and themselves. With this
loss of intimacy comes a deadening indifference to the natural world, which
results in further exploitation and destruction. To reverse this process, one
needs to recapture a sense of beauty and appreciation for the natural world, a
sense of the wholly real materiality of things, not for the sake of consumption
and manipulation, but for the very being indicated by its presence.
In an earlier study, I explored a
comparative analysis between Gaia theory and the Jaina theory of the
all-pervasiveness of eternal jiva.28
David Abram, alluding to Gaia theory, similarly suggests that the living-ness
of things as articulated by the philosopher Merleau-Ponty in fact has a
scientific basis:
| |
We have at least come to realize that neither
the soils, the oceans, nor the atmosphere can be comprehended without taking
into account the participation of innumerable organisms, from the lichens that
crumble rocks, and the bacterial entities that decompose organic detritus, to
all the respiring plants and animals exchanging vital gases with the air. The
notion of earthly nature as a densely interconnected organic network—a
“biospheric web” wherein each entity draws its specific character from its
relations direct and indirect, to all the others—has today become commonplace.
. . .29 |
Whether seen as a continuity of
interchangeable life forms or as a succession of discrete incarnations, the
weblike nature of both contemporary biology and traditional Jaina cosmology
merits our attention. Both views require us to see the world as a living,
breathing, sensuous reality, from its elemental building blocks of earth,
water, fire, and air, through its microbial expressions, right up to its array
of complex insects and mammals, including primates. In the Jaina tradition,
this has led to a careful observance of the principle of nonviolence (ahimsa).
In the world of contemporary ethics, it has led to the introduction of
animal-rights language, the argument for legal standing for trees, and most
recently the Great Ape Project, which advocates that full rights be accorded to
chimpanzees, gorillas, and other high-functioning primates.
CONCLUSION
Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme propose a new story based
on scientific explanations regarding the origin and nature of the universe. In
part, this approach depends on a starting point (the Flaring Forth or Big Bang)
and the idea of an implied if not explicit sense of teleology. The Jaina system
does not include a fixed origin point in either assumed fact or metaphor, but
rather assumes the eternality of the world. It will not work as a conventional
story, since it has no defined beginning, middle, or probable end. Rather, the
Jaina system seeks to sacralize all aspects of worldly existence. By seeing all
that surrounds us as suffused with life and worthy of worship, Jainism offers a
different sort of picture, one that decentralizes and universalizes ethics,
thus taking away overly anthropocentric concerns, and brings into vivid relief
the urgency of life in its various elemental, vegetative, and animal forms. The
key to Jainism might well be its evocation of immediacy and care, rather than
any narrative myth or set of externally imposed ethical values.
At first glance, the Jaina
tradition might seem to be inherently ecologically friendly. It emphasizes ahimsa
(nonviolence). It reveres all forms of life. It requires its adherents to
engage only in certain types of livelihood, presumably based on the principle
of ahimsa. Jainism’s earth-friendly attitudes have been
celebrated in L. M. Singhvi’s Jain Declaration on Nature,
in Michael Tobias’s video Ahimsa and its companion volume, Life
Force, in the proceedings of the Ladnun conference on Ecology and
Jainism, and in my own book Nonviolence to Animals,
Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions.
However, if we look at the ultimate intention of the Jaina faith as well as the
actual practices of some Jaina business enterprises, we might detect a need for
the sort of in-depth critical analysis that Thomas Berry has proposed. For
instance, Jainas have long avoided using animal products in their many business
operations; lists of “green-friendly” materials could be developed by Jainas to
be used in manufacturing processes. The Jaina programs of environmental
education could be expanded to prepare future leaders to be more familiar with
environmental issues. Jainas could actively support air-pollution reduction
initiatives by making certain that their own automobiles in India conform to
legal standards.
In some respects, however,
environmental activism can win a secondary place at best in the practice of the
Jaina faith. The observance of ahimsa must be regarded as ancillary to
the goal of final liberation, or kevala. Ultimate meaning is not
found in the perfection of nonviolent (in this case eco-friendly) behavior but
in the extirpation of all fettering karma. Although the resultant lifestyle for
monks and nuns resembles or approximates an environmentally friendly ideal, its
pursuit focuses on personal, spiritual advancement, not on a holistic vision of
the interrelatedness of life. In terms of the lifestyle of the Jaina layperson,
certain practices such as vegetarianism, periodic fasting, and eschewal of
militarism might be seen as eco-friendly. However, some professions adopted by
the Jainas as a result of their religious commitment to refrain from harming
all but one-sensed beings might in fact be environmentally disastrous, such as
strip-mining for granite or marble, unless habitat restoration accompanies the
mining process. Likewise, how many Jaina industries contribute to air pollution
or forest destruction or result in water pollution? The development of a Jaina
ecological business ethic would require extensive reflection and restructuring.
As Thomas Berry has noted, the
task of ecological repair requires an ongoing dialogue between the political,
economic, scientific, and religious communities. Adherents of Jainism, given
their ethic of nonviolence and their deep involvement with the governmental
structures of India and the business community worldwide, are well positioned
to initiate such a dialogue. The story of human superiority over nature has
been told throughout the world, even by the Jainas who seek to rise above
nature. And this story has been realized, as seen in the success of consumer
culture worldwide. Native habitats continue to be destroyed as
industrialization expands. As this happens, entire species of animals, insects,
and plants disappear, never to return. Yet humans proliferate, taking up more
space worldwide with their houses and condominiums and farmland, encroaching on
and destroying the wild, isolating humans within fabricated landscapes that
separate the human from the pulse of nonhuman life.
A shift in consciousness must
take place that values life in its myriad forms. Telling a different story may
help in bringing about this shift. The cosmological views of Jainism, the
insights of contemporary science, and the growing perception of the beauty and
fragility of the natural order all can contribute to this essential change in
perspective.
ENDNOTES
| 1 |
Jonathan Barnes, ed., The Complete
Works of Aristotle (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1984), 774. Back
to Text |
| 2 |
A fuller version of this essay will appear in Jainism
and Ecology, edited by the author, to be published by the
Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School. Back
to Text |
| 3 |
Victoria Neufeldt, ed., Webster’s New
World Dictionary (New York: Webster’s New World, 1988), 846.
Back to
Text |
| 4 |
Santi Suri, Jiva Vicara Prakaranam
along with Pathaka Ratnakara’s Commentary,
ed. Muni Ratna-Prabha Vijaya, trans. Jayant P. Thaker (Madras: Jain Mission
Society, 1950), 163; hereafter abbreviated as JVP. Back
to Text |
| 5 |
Umasvati, That Which Is (Tattvartha
Sutra): A Classic Jain Manual for
Understanding the True Nature of Reality,
trans. Nathmal Tatia (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994), 53. Back
to Text |
| 7 |
Brian Swimme, The Hidden Heart
of the Cosmos: Humanity and the
New Story (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1996), 93. Back
to Text |
| 10 |
See Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe
Story: From the Primordial Flaring
Forth to the Ecozoic Era: A Celebration
of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992). Back
to Text |
| 11 |
Jaina Sutras, Part I:
The Akaranga Sutra, The Kalpa Sutra,
trans. Hermann Jacobi (New York: Dover, 1968; 1st ed., 1884), I:8.I.11–12;
hereafter abbreviated as AS.
Back to Text |
| 12 |
See R. Williams, Jaina Yoga:
A Survey of the Mediaeval Sravakacaras
(London: Oxford University Press, 1964). Back
to Text |
| 25 |
Thomas Berry, The Dream of
the Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988), 164. Back
to Text |
| 26 |
Thomas Berry, “Religion in the Ecozoic Era,”
plenary address to the American Academy of Religion, Washington, D.C., 1993, 2. Back
to Text |
| 28 |
Christopher Key Chapple, Nonviolence to
Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian
Traditions (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1993),
chap. 4. Back
to Text |
| 29 |
David Abram, The Spell of
the Sensuous: Perception and Language
in a More-Than-Human World
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1996), 85.
Back to Text |
|
|
|
|
©
2001 by The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
|
|
|
|
|