Course Home

Syllabus & Assignments

Resources

Lectures

Religions of the World I: Jainism

Monastic life

Two sects:

• Digambara: ("sky clad") - mostly in south India

• monks wear no clothes as part of extreme renunciation of physical (material) life in human society

• women are not admitted to monastic life

• Svetambara: ("white clad") - mostly in north and west India

• monks wear simple white cloth, a little less extreme, more liberal (colder climate requires clothing)

• women are admitted to monastic life

Monks take five vows: (cf. 5 abstentions in 1st step of Raja Yoga)

• do not harm others (Ahimsa)

• do not lie

• do not steal

• renounce sexual (physical) pleasures (celibacy)

• renounce all attachments to people and possessions (poverty)

Monks live in a more or less loose association, monastic practice is primarily individualistic rather than in a more structured and organized community (although the more liberal Svetambara sect is a bit more organized and, during the rainy season, even Digambara monks will gather at monasteries rather than be lone forest dwellers)