26 Facts About Jainism

1.

Jainism known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion.

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2.

Jainism is considered to be an eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every time cycle of the cosmology.

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3.

Jainism is one of the world's oldest religions in practice to this day.

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4.

Jainism is transtheistic and forecasts that the universe evolves without violating the law of substance dualism, and the actual realization of this principle plays out through the phenomena of both parallelism and interactionism.

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5.

The spiritual goal in Jainism is to reach moksha for ascetics, but for most Jain laypersons, it is to accumulate good karma that leads to better rebirth and a step closer to liberation.

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6.

Jainism is a transtheistic religion, holding that the universe was not created, and will exist forever.

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7.

However, Jainism believes in the world of heavenly and hell beings who are born, die and are reborn like earthly beings.

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8.

Furthermore, Jainism emphasizes non-violence against all beings not only in action but in speech and in thought.

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9.

Similarly, since ancient times, Jainism co-existed with Buddhism and Hinduism according to Dundas, but Jainism disagreed, in specific areas, with the knowledge systems and beliefs of these traditions, and vice versa.

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10.

Third main principle in Jainism is aparigraha which means non-attachment to worldly possessions.

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11.

For monks and nuns, Jainism requires a vow of complete non-possession of any property, relations and emotions.

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12.

Jainism teaches five ethical duties, which it calls five vows.

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13.

Jainism prescribes seven supplementary vows, including three guna vratas and four siksa vratas.

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14.

Jainism considers meditation a necessary practice, but its goals are very different from those in Buddhism and Hinduism.

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15.

In Jainism, meditation is concerned more with stopping karmic attachments and activity, not as a means to transformational insights or self-realization in other Indian religions.

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16.

The most famous of the mantras, broadly accepted in various sects of Jainism, is the "five homage" mantra which is believed to be eternal and existent since the first tirthankara's time.

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17.

Jainism is similar to Buddhism in not recognizing the primacy of the Vedas and the Hindu Brahman.

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18.

Some early colonial scholars stated that Jainism like Buddhism was, in part, a rejection of the Hindu caste system, but later scholars consider this a Western error.

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19.

Jainism is distinguished from other tirthankara by the long locks of hair falling to his shoulders.

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20.

In Jainism, Om is a condensed reference to the initials "A-A-A-U-M" of the five parameshthis: "Arihant, Ashiri, Acharya, Upajjhaya, Muni", or the five lines of the Namokara Mantra.

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21.

Jainism faced persecution during and after the Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent.

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22.

Jainism worked to defend the rights of Jains, and wrote and lectured extensively on Jainism.

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23.

Jainism is best known because of his association with Mahatma Gandhi.

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24.

Jainism then led an India-wide tour as the naked monk with his followers, to various Digambara sacred sites, and was welcomed by kings of the Maharashtra provinces.

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25.

Followers of Jainism are called "Jains", a word derived from the Sanskrit jina, which means an omniscient person who teaches the path of salvation.

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26.

Jainism has been praised for some of its practices and beliefs.

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