- Ultimately is this the fate of human existence—a brief, brutish existence full of toil and strife with few rewards and pleasures? How would you interpret human existence?
- Is the monk’s interpretation or explanation fatalistic? Explain. Second, put yourself in the prince’s place. Do you think the monk persuaded him? Would he have persuaded you? Explain.
- The monk seems to warn against pleasures —the rare “drops of honey.” Is pleasure folly and distracting, as the monk seems to infer? In formulating your “philosophy” of pleasure, how would you address seeking pleasure in a world of poverty and suffering?
- The parable is short and simple, and does not appear to offer any solution or means of “salvation” or enlightenment out of this forest full of perils and traps. What might be the Jain answer for eliminating one’s bad karma?
- Write your own brief parable to offer a similar or a counter example / alternative parable to the one relayed to the prince. Or if you like, expand on the monk’s parable with a possible “way out” of the dilemma of our accumulated negative karma
Part 2:
- How would you define ahimsa—in terms of its (a) literal meaning; (b) prescriptive behavior—what we should do; and (c) proscriptive behavior–what we should not do. Find examples from the article.
- Laity—or lay persons—are the common “everyone else” folks, whereas clergy or clerics are the ordained religious orders such as monks, priests, monks, nuns. Discuss the issue of “intentionality” for lay Jains. (See page 3 of the article.)
- Buddhism as well as Jainism in particular stress compassion, which seems to be the spirit of or at the heart of the teaching of ahimsa. Think of and list ways we might “cultivate” and practice compassion in our daily lives.
- Assuming this is so, how does religion or religious teaching factor into ecology, and environmentalism?
- From an overall reading of this piece, how might ahimsa be applied in the matter of self-defense and in responding to domestic violence?
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