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date: 25 January 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This article examines the Jaina faith in light of its commitment to environmental values. After providing an overview of Jaina history and principles, it discusses contemporary Jain environmentalism, concentration on the elements and senses as vehicle for ecoawareness, and water in Jainism. This article also includes the author's reflections on his own practice of the Jain principles as interpreted through the tradition of classical yoga. At the time of its inception and until recent decades, the protection of ecology and environment did not play a significant role in the Jain way of life beyond a care to minimize any harm that one might inflict on others that would harm one's own soul. In contemporary times, Jainism has been reinterpreted as enhancing human-earth relations. The precepts of Jainism, particularly non-violence and non-possession, generally associated in their most rigorous forms with monastic men and women, have now been refigured and recast in an ecological mold.

Keywords: Jainism, ecology, environmentalism, water, ecoawareness, classical yoga, violence, possession

Christopher Key Chapple

Christopher Key Chapple is professor of theological studies and associate academic vice president at Loyola Marymount University. He has published several books, including Karma and Creativity; Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions; and Reconciling Yogas. He has three books on the topic of religion and ecology: Ecological Prospects: Religious, Scientific, and Aesthetic Perspectives; Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water (coeditor); and Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life. He serves on the advisory boards for the Green Yoga Association, the Forum on Religion and Ecology, the Global Ethics and Religion Forum, the Ahimsa Center, and the Yadunandan Center for India Studies.

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