Jainism

Any Jainists here? How does one go about properly practising this fascinating religion?

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Be naked all the time.

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Sikhs believe that Jainism is the only major religion that doesn't provide a path toward spiritual liberation due to it's extreme asceticism.

It's Jains not jainists. I can only describe it as militant non violence.

Good luck trying to actually practice this religion outside of a remote rural village in India.

>don't eat anything tasty
>be maximum jew

>tfw no qt jains around me to kidnap and keep in my basement

buddhist here
in order to be jain you gotta not kill bugs or kill anything. I think killing bugs is the hardest thing to hurdle as we westerners are raising with the idea that bugs are "pests" and by giving them this label we excuse our killing of them. but you cant kill em.
eat a banana and bread a day and filter your water at least 3 times to make sure you dont swallow and kill a microbe that could be a lifeform.
you gotta walk, really slowly to make sure you dont step on a bug or you are screwed spiritually.
but they are good people. jains are good men you a good man user. you can probably not do it. but you can try and that makes you a good man.

Thanks for the reply user. I appreciate it.

It's a religion based on the idea of being as useless to society as possible.

You actually behave like all the other religions claim they do

>merchants and traders
>useless to society.

Jainism is basically what you'd get if Siddhartha had never discovered the Middle Path isn't it?

Vegan Hindus the religion

The essense of Jainism is nonviolence, so you have to be vegetarian, a pacifist, and even to avoid killing bugs (many Jains were a kind of curtain in front of their mouths to prevent accidentally inhaling a bug)

to be fair, Jain temples are cared for by hired Hindu Brahman priests because the duties involved in the daily care and worship of the idols/temple goes against Jainism. Jain monks/priests are constantly moving around (except in the monsoon season) and are completely and utterly reliant upon others to make them food and care for them. In the case of the Degumbara sect, it's a naked monk.

Jainism is all about doing as little as possible and achieving as little karma as you can because karma is the force that binds you to the mortal plane (whether it's a good karma or bad karma) and the ultimate goal is to be like the 24 Tirthankaras who achieved liberation from the whole system. Liberation in this mortal time period is impossible. It's an abhorrently strict religion with draconian rules and very few people who actually practice the religion. But mostly a lay Jain usually goes into the temple once a day to worship the Tirthankaras, does not eat meat or kill insects, (very hard in India) and doesn't participate in any business that involves that. Jains are the pacifist Jews of India, and the gem Industry in Jaipur is completely and utterly run by Jains.

Only the Svetumbara Jains do that, the Degumbara Jains are absolutely naked.

There are several Jain communities and temples around India. I stayed in a Degumbara temple complex in the middle of Jaipur's gemstone district where all the Jains of the city mostly work, and there are tons of workshops and businesses with the word "Jain" on them, since "Jain" is also a last name among Jains. I even saw a female military qt in Haridwar airport who was Jain based on her name tag

You should see what happens when the very rich city Jains start building things for the country Jains out in the villages.

Only Degumbara ascetics do that.

They would be right. Jain's believe that currently no human living right now can achieve liberation, rather, it is a process of many reincarnations over several millenia that finally allow you to become a Tirthankara, a human at the right place at the right time.

All very true.

In a sense, yes. That part of the story is specifically meant as an attack on Jain ascetics and Jain ideals so as to separate Buddhists from Jains.

Sounds like the Thalmor in the elder scrolls. Except for the whole pacifism thing

Imagine if someone took the notion of Karma to its logical extreme and you have the Jains. The only goal in life is to minimse bad karma and max the good and holy hell they dont fuck around when it comes to it.

I cant believe they managed to get as big or survive Islam and Hinduism which btfod buddhism in INdia

Buddhism being called the Middle Path kinda seems bullshitty to me, since monks are very ascetic and do shun physical pleasure. I feel like the Middle Path is more applicable to Sikhism, with their forbidding of asceticism and of hedonism.

There was no forcible conversion to Jainism in India and therefore no backlash. Ashoka was more than a little eager to get everyone to join Buddhism. Which in my opinion led to resentment towards it. Today there are not many Buddhists in India outside the Himalayas but a lot of people consider Buddha a Mahatma.

I find it kinda weird/coincidental that Zoroastrian priests have something similar, only it's to stop their breath contaminating sacred flames.

Jainism is older than Buddhism. It's called the middle path partly in response to Jains, as Siddhartha felt they were too strict.

by dying of starvation in a forest

As a buddhist its weird looking at some ofthe buddhists in india/myanmar.sri lanka. They seem to break buddhist foundations. They are very traditionalist, they almost worship the buddha which is a form of attachment, and as you said are ascetic, i get why they forgo most physical pleasures, but some of them actually inflict pain onto them selves, Zen masters are known for beating trainees (cant think of the term) to make them "more mindful"
youtube.com/watch?v=_WAi2fwUqN4
I dont understand why they all behave these ways.