Brief outline of afterlife beliefs of Jainism

 Brief outline of afterlife beliefs of Jainism

Jainism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism) is one of the oldest religions in the world, at least as one that survives today as a living tradition (according to modern scholars the earliest historical figure of this religion dates back to the 7th or 8th century BC!). And, I would say that it is one of the most peculiar religions. Like most other Indian traditions, it accepts the belief in samsara, the cycle of deaths and rebirths in which most sentient beings are 'trapped' due to ignorance. It should be noted that Jainism is divided in two main sects but in what follows, this distinction isn't important.

  • Like Buddhism, Jainism doesn't accept the belief in a creator Deity. 
  • The ordinary condition of most sentient beings is one of being trapped in a cycle of deaths and rebirths that has no beginning and potentially has no end. 
  • The division between the realms of beings is vertical: at the bottom, under the earth, there are the Narakas, temporary and terrifying hells; at the middle level we find human beings and animals; in the higher levels there realms for transitory deities; the highest realms is the one of the liberated souls (siddhasila). 
  • Notably, the idea seems to be that the 'heavier' one sentient being, the lower it abides. And this 'weight' depends on the result of past actions: good actions diminish the weight and bad actions increases the weight. 
  • Contrary to Buddhism, the relevant actions that determine the future state of one's soul can be both intentional and non-intentional. While, for instance, Buddhism considers karma only intentional actions, Jains consider relevant also non-intentional actions: e.g. stepping on and killing insects without having an intention to do so is still karmically relevant (that's why the Jain version of ahimsa - non-violence - is extremely radical and admits no exceptions). 
  • The purpose of the spiritual practice is to remove all the 'weights' tra trap one soul in one of the realms inside samsara. A perfect soul is devoid of all impurities and after the death of the body, the soul can rest in the siddhasila
  • Contrary to Buddhism, Jainism accepts the existence of real 'selves' (the souls, i.e. jiva)
  • There might be souls that never escape samsara
Interestingly enough, the image of a soul's 'weight' also recurs in other traditions. Consider this excerpt from the 'Book of the Bee', written by Solomon of Basra, a 13th century bishop of the Christian Church of the East:   

"The things which certain stupid men invent, who indulge their fancy, and give bodily form to the punishment of sinners and the reward of the just and righteous, and say that there is at the resurrection a reckoning and a pair of scales, the Church does not receive; but each one of us carries his light and his fire within him, and his heaviness and his lightness is round in his own pature. Just as stone and iron naturally possess the property of falling to the earth, and as the air naturally ascends upward on account of its rarity and its lightness; so also in the resurrection, he that is heavy and lying in sins, his sins will bring him down; and he that is free from the rust of sin, his purity will make him rise in the scale. And our Lord will ascend to heaven, and the angels (will go) before Him like ambassadors, and the just and the righteous will be upon His right hand and His left, and the children behind Him in the form of the life-giving Cross." (Book of the Bee, chapter 58; translated by Budge; source: https://sacred-texts.com/chr/bb/bb58.htm)

And even in Buddhism, there is the idea that higher realms are subtler and more 'luminous'. 

    

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