Nisha Shlaymoon

Jainism
All different kinds of religions from Christianity to Hinduism have different teachings and rules, but when we talk about Jainism, we take it to the last level of extremeness. Although all religions have similar teachings, Jainism takes all these teachings to the limit. Jainism overall have five teachings that were preached and liven by Mahavira, a great Jain prophet: No sex is what most religions prohibit before marriage and for all religions it is similar. However, for Jainism, marriage is not an excuse for sex, since its absolutely prohibited to have sex even if youre married, although some Jains that dont apply that rule to their life still practice sex even if theyre not married. This rule is still common even till this day. No killing is a very common teaching for mostly all of the religions around the world. However, killing in Jainism applies for every living being from plants to animals and humans and even germs. This rule often contradicts Jains teachings since some Jains have to kill plant to eat and live, otherwise they would all die from hunger and starvation. Some Jains in our society dont actually apply this rule fully to their life since they have to kill plants and germs sometimes to survive and stay healthy. Rejection of materialism is another teaching that Mahavira preached and lived by as a Jain prophet. We dont see this rule this extreme in some religions as it is in Jainism. A great example of this teaching was the ascetics in India. An ascetic is a person that rejects materialism extremely that sometimes they might not even wear clothes and they live in the woods far away from society , in this century , there might be some ascetics out there , but not as they were like before. No lying, which is a moral rule and a teaching that Jains had since Mahaviras time is one of the five teachings that Jains saw that was important to apply to their all life to be true and honest not only with their selves, but with other people around them and around their faith.

Nisha Shlaymoon

The last faith of the five Jainism teachings is the rejection of greed, or simply being generous in your life is an important teaching for Jainism, since the ascetics were rejecting material life, they were also generous with other people around them. Mahavira teaches people to be generous and to give up for their own pleasure to give and offer others help in their life. All these five teachings reflect on our community today and especially our school community. Many students apply these teachings that we discussed earlier to their life: no killing, no sex, rejection of materialism, no lying and rejection of greed. It plays an important part of our schools community since it guides our students to live better and live independently and be able to face their problems.