Workshop Theme
STRIKING A BALANCE: - EXAMINING Social,
Cultural, and Spiritual environment that our youth face while growing up in
North America.
Dates
– August 16, 2013 to August 18, 2013
Time
– August 16 Friday 7 PM to 9 PM and August 17 and 18 - 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Location
– Jain Society of Houston (Big Trailer)
Participants
The workshop will be most beneficial to Pathashala teachers, potential teachers and any adults who are open minded to understand the principles of Jainism and their applications in American culture environment. The Workshop is open to all.
The workshop will be most beneficial to Pathashala teachers, potential teachers and any adults who are open minded to understand the principles of Jainism and their applications in American culture environment. The Workshop is open to all.
Workshop Moderator
Pravin K Shah, Chairperson Jaina Education Committee and Jain eLibrary in-charge.
Pravin K Shah, Chairperson Jaina Education Committee and Jain eLibrary in-charge.
Workshop Coordinators –
Chini Mehta at emailchini@gmail.com (832)584-4327 or Smita Bora at smitabora@hotmail.com
Registration required but no fee:(Limited space available).
Chini Mehta at emailchini@gmail.com (832)584-4327 or Smita Bora at smitabora@hotmail.com
Registration required but no fee:(Limited space available).
Overview of Jain Workshop
After the first few sessions on Jain axioms
and fundamental principles, the workshop delves into the brain storming and
discussion on powerful and thought provoking questions that have no absolute
answers. It includes the social and
cultural perceptions as well as stereotypes and generalizations from both youth
and adult’s perspective.
The discussion will provide insights into
questions that are important to our youth in order to develop them spiritually,
ethically, and socially in the western world.
While often difficult to reconcile divergent
influences, it is critical to understand the distinctions and strike a balance
amongst Indian heritage, Jain religion, spirituality and Western lifestyle.
We will be digging deep, challenging
ourselves/our limiting beliefs and exploring new possibilities. Regardless of
your current level of understanding, you are bound to walk away with a new
expanded view.
List of Questions
We have compiled the list of questions that
our youth, young Jain professionals, Pathashala teachers, and adult community
have asked us over the past 10 years of time. The following two links contain the
listings of all such questions.
During
the workshop we will be discussing
these questions and their possible answers using the fundamental
principles of
Jainism. Keep in mind that some
questions are not easy to answer and some questions may have more than
one answer. Also for some questions we may not have enough
knowledge of Jainism to answer.
If you have any question that is not being
covered in the above two lists, please send your question using the following
link:
I would also like to put together a team of Scholars
and Pathashala teachers from North America to work on the answers of these
questions. We need to prepare the
answers appropriate to our time, place, and circumstances and not violating the
fundamental principles of Jainism. If
any of you have an interest to work on this team, please send me an email. (Qualification - You should be living in
North America and have raised families here.)
Prerequisite for the Workshop
Please read the Jaina Education material Reference book – Jainism 101 (JES 901/902) located at the following link
Please read the Jaina Education material Reference book – Jainism 101 (JES 901/902) located at the following link
Future Workshop
I will be conducting similar sessions every
day during Paryushana in London UK organized by the Jain Network (Dr. Natubhai
Shah - natubhaishah@aol.com) and
Young Jains UK organizations.
If your Jain center would like to organize
such workshop, please contact Pravin K Shah jainaedu@gmail.com
Follow-ups
Brett Evans’s Article on “A Perspective on
Panjarapoles (Animal Shelter) of India”
We have received about 80 email responses
around the world basically appreciating his work. Brett is trying hard to respond
individually. However he will prepare
general answer that will be distributed in next week.
Pathashala Presentations at the Jaina
Convention
We have uploaded the Pathshala presentation of
18 different Jain centers of North America that we have received at the Jaina
convention. Now you will be able to see
the various activities of different Jain Centers of North America at the
following link.
If you want to modify/change your existing
information, please send us a new file and we will replace it on the website. If your center has not provided its
presentation, please do it now and we will upload it on the website.
If you have any questions, please fill free to
contact at jainaedu@gmail.com
Regards,
Pravin
K Shah
Jaina
Education Committee
Jain eLibrary.
Jain eLibrary.
