SelectSmart.com's JAINISM description for SELECTSMART'S SPIRITUAL BELIEF SYSTEMS SELECTOR - a comparative WORLD RELIGIONS quiz. Explore your spiritual path.
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Spiritual Belief System Selector
by SelectSmart.com staff
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This description is generally aligned with the topics addressed in SelectSmart.com's entertaining yet educational Spiritual Belief Systems selector quiz, comparing more than two dozen world religions/belief systems.

JAINISM

by SelectSmart Staff

  • Belief in Deity: Humans who have destroyed their karmas achieve Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Preception, Infinite Power and Infinite Bliss. They become Gods, or Jina, and as such will never suffer rebirth again. There is no Creator God, and Jinas do not manage the universe or humankind, which operate under their own laws (cosmic and karmic). The souls of Jinas retain their individual identities. Twenty-four Jinas are worshipped as inspirational bridges for others to achieve liberation, the latest being the founder of the religion. Any living being may become a God once enlightened. As more people become enlightened, the number of Gods becomes innumerable.

  • Incarnations: No incarnations. Gods are humans who attain enlightment and are liberated from rebirth.

  • Origins of Universe/Life: There is no creator; the universe is eternal and infinite and operates under its own cosmic law -- consists of three sections: earth, heaven, and hell.

  • After death: Through laws of karma, one’s soul is reborn until enlightened and liberated. One may be reborn into hell or heaven or as a lower life form, depending on one’s karma. Once fully liberated, you become a God with omniscience and omnipotence.

  • Why evil? People have free will to commit wrongs. Evil results as cravings, attachments and ignorance accumulate through perpetual rebirths, resulting in greed, hatred, violence.

  • Salvation: Ridding oneself of all karmas (good or bad) and extinguishing all attachments enables one to become enlightened/liberated from cycles of rebirth and become a God with limitless perception, knowledge, power, and happiness. One must follow the “Three Jewels” of right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. This includes no violence to any life form, even vegetables (eaten if the plant is not killed by doing so). To hasten liberation, one must confess/repent regularly and often and live ascetically, especially in the fourth and final stage of life.

  • Undeserved Suffering: Suffering is a result of past life greed, hatred, and ignorance, which returns as suffering (karma). Suffering is also seen as illusory in that it results from attachment to bodily pleasure and pain, while only the Absolute truly exists. Suffering is one way of actively ridding oneself of bad karma.

  • Contemporary Issues: Homosexuality would result in negative karma as sexuality is only to occur between a husband and wife; celibacy is required on the path to spiritual liberation.

    RECOMMENDED LINKS:

  • Books on Religion & Spirituality from Amazon.com
  • Recommended Website: Jainism: Jain Principles, Tradition and Practices
  • Recommended Website: Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
  • Recommended Website: JainNet