Contemplating Jivas
Christopher P. Miller
July 19, 2023 DOI: 10.4324/9781003365624-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Jain-inspired contemplative practices |
| Duration | Six-week program of study |
| Key points | Argues that Jain elemental meditations and textual visions of earthly life, as encountered during a six-week summer program, carry affective power that can deepen appreciation for the natural world, and proposes integrating these and similar contemplative practices into university curricula in response to environmental degradation. |
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the time the author spent at the International Summer School for Jain Studies (ISSJS) in Delhi in the summer of 2012. Using the ISSJS summer graduate studies program as a prism for experiential analysis, it surveys Jainism’s elemental meditations and concomitant views of the natural world as found in the Ācārāṅga Sūtra (ca. 4th c. BCE), Tattvārtha Sūtra (ca. 2nd c. CE), and Jñānārṇāva (ca. 11th c. CE). During the six-week program of study at ISSJS, both the author as well as some of the other students undertook various Jain-inspired contemplative practices from these and other texts, some of the outcomes of which are shared from the author’s own travel journals. Given our current struggles to find the global and individual will to come to terms with anthropogenic climate change and the ever-increasing defilement of our shared earth, water, and air, this chapter hopes to bring its readers to a greater appreciation for the affective power of Jainism’s prescribed elemental meditations and visions of earthly life while also reflecting on how we might integrate these and similar practices into our own university curriculums.