Jain Workshop at Houston TX

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.

Workshop Moderator
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).

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.

http://www.jainelibrary.org/$Questions/01_Youth_Adults_and_Teachers_Questions.pdf

http://www.jainelibrary.org/$Questions/02_Questions_Received_in_Email.pdf

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:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gNRHFm2qnP5RGvmYuBjldLS8FnUXrUjUocSJTsYSPhI/viewform

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

http://www.jainlibrary.org/elib_master/jaina_edu/jaina_edu_book/$JES901_Jainism_E7_20090301_000901.pdf

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.

http://jainelibrary.org/jaina_path.php

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.

SHALIN JAIN AWARDED FELLOWSHIP TO PURSUE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AT CLAREMONT LINCOLN UNIVERSIY

SHALIN  JAIN  AWARDED  FELLOWSHIP TO  PURSUE ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH AT CLAREMONT LINCOLN UNIVERSIY

CLAREMONT, CA—Dr. Shalin Jain, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Delhi (India), has been  awarded  the prestigious Raman  Fellowship  for  Post Doctoral Research for Indian Scholars in the United States by the University Grants Commission  (Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government  of India) to  spend  six months as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Jain Studies at Claremont Lincoln University in the fall of 2013. Dr. Jain specializes in  Medieval  Jain  history,  with  special focus  on ecology and the environment,  and  will  pursue research on Contemporary
Environmental Concerns and Medieval Religious Communities during his time at Claremont Lincoln. 

The Jain Studies program was launched a year and a half ago in the fall of 2011 with the opening of the new University, and has since become one of the most active graduate- level  Jain Studies  programs  in  North  America.  Dr.  Jain  will be the first  visiting Post Doctoral Fellow in Jain Studies to come to Claremont Lincoln since the inception of the program.

Claremont Lincoln Inaugurates Center for Jain Studies

CLAREMONT, Calif., United States

On Oct. 8, only one year since the beginning of the Jain Studies program, Claremont Lincoln University celebrated the inauguration of a new Center for Jain Studies.

 The inaugural ceremony was held at the Claremont School of Theology prior to the national panel discussion of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, in which the Jain tradition was represented by former JAINA president, and one of the senior advisors for the Jain Studies program at Claremont Lincoln, Dr. Sulekh Jain.

 In the ceremony, Jain Studies professor Brianne Donaldson, who has served as the Dharma Traditions coordinator for the past year that administers the majority of the Jain projects and activities, recounted the beginnings of the Jain Studies program and its many accomplishments so far.

 Dr. Nitin Shah of Loma Linda University and past president of the Jain Center of Southern California, and one of the main donors behind the opening of the new center, spoke on the importance of education in the current world.

 In the course of just one year, the Jain Studies program at Claremont Lincoln has become one of the most active Jain Studies graduate programs in the nation.

 The opening celebration also featured a short cultural program of music, dance, and theater performances.

Claremont Lincoln University Opens a Center for Jain Studies

November 14, 2012

Last fall, the nation’s first interreligious university, Claremont Lincoln University, located forty miles east of Los Angeles, California, saw its opening convocation, at which it celebrated a new partnership with the Jain community.  This fall, on October 8, 2012, only one year since the beginning of the Jain Studies program, Claremont Lincoln University celebrated the inauguration of a new Center for Jain Studies, dedicated to furthering the work of Jain wisdom in today’s world.  In the course of just one year, the Jain Studies program at Claremont Lincoln has become not only the most active program at the University, but also the most active Jain Studies graduate program in the nation--already administering over a dozen programs, including hosting an annual international Jain conference; offering graduate-level Jain dharma courses each year; bringing expert Jain scholars to the area for special lectures and events; hosting an annual Ahimsa Day celebration; and coordinating a summer Jain dharma study abroad program in India for local and national scholars.

With this much Jain activity happening on campus, the University sought to deepen collaborations with its Jain partners even further and, with philanthropic support from the Jain community, launched a Center that will serve as the hub for the many Jain Studies projects flowering out of this intimate partnership.

The Center’s inaugural ceremony on October 8^th was held at Mudd Theater at Claremont School of Theology just before the national panel discussion of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, in which the Jain tradition was represented by former President of JAINA, and one of the senior advisors for the Jain Studies program at Claremont Lincoln, Dr. Sulekh Jain. 

In the celebratory ceremony Professor of Jain Studies, Ms. Brianne Donaldson, who has served as the Dharma Traditions Coordinator for the past year, administering the majority of the Jain projects and activities, recounted the beginnings of the Jain Studies program and its many accomplishments so far.  The new Center Coordinator, Ms. Lidiya Potapenko, followed, speaking on the central importance of ahimsa (or non-violence) in Jain dharma, and announced that the Center’s mission was to put compassion and non-violence to work in the world around us. Dr. Nitin Shah (Loma Linda University), past President of the Jain Center of Southern California and one of the main donors behind the opening of the new Center, spoke on the importance of education in the current world.  The opening celebration also featured a short cultural program of music, dance, and theater performances by Anjal, Priyash, Vaishali, and Mahesh Jain—members of Claremont Lincoln’s local Jain partnership organization, the Jain Center of Southern California (JCSC) in Buena Park.

The new Center for Jain Studies is dedicated to facilitating and promoting open discourse, innovative scholarship, creative expression, and the practical application of Jain teachings in today’s world.  In all of its projects, the Center will especially encourage connections between Jain dharma and other wisdom traditions, and will raise awareness of the larger interconnected ecological environment in which we live.  To find out more about the new Center for Jain Studies at Claremont Lincoln University, please visit jain.claremontlincoln.org.

Jain Studies in Florida University

Florida International University's Religious Studies Department is receiving $600,000 from South Florida's Jain community to boost awareness of the little-practiced, but influential, religion.

BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ AND JAWEED KALEEM


With perhaps 10 million adherents worldwide -- the vast majority of them in one country, India -- Jainism might be called a bit player on the stage of world religions. Florida International University religious studies professor Nathan Katz, however, would beg to differ.

Katz's years of religious study, combined with a healthy dose of interaction with Jain faculty members at FIU, has shown him Jainism's profound impact on both Buddhism and Hinduism. So, too, did Katz learn of Jainism's role in developing the philosophical ideal of nonviolence -- a torch later carried by Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr..

`VAST INFLUENCE'

``Jainism is a very small religion numerically, but has had vast influence in the world,'' Katz said. ``It's very important in the global history of ideas.''

In addition to nonviolence, other central tenets of Jainism, according to Katz, are non-greed, respect for all forms of life, and religious pluralism.

Those values mesh perfectly with FIU, Katz said -- where environmentalism, cultural diversity and a global view of issues are guiding principles.

Thanks to a $600,000 donation from South Florida's Jain community, FIU's role in educating the public on the religion is about to grow. University leaders are scheduled to formally announce the gift Friday afternoon.

The donation -- which with matching funds from the state will bring more than $1 million to FIU -- is to fund an endowed professorship in FIU's Religious Studies Department, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Katz, who is Jewish, will take the lead in raising the profile of Jainism in all sorts of university classes, both religious and nonreligious.

As part of the gift, Katz's formal title has grown by a few words: He is now the Bhagwan Mahavir Professor of Jain Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at Florida International University.

The Jain professorship is the first of its kind in the Americas, and the endowment is part of a larger initiative by the Jain community to establish a permanent academic education center for Jain studies and research at FIU.

Jayant Shah, president of the South Florida Jain Temple in Weston, praised FIU's new program.

``It's incredibly positive. Only a handful of people know about Jainism, but now the Jain religion will have more exposure,'' said Shah, 66, an electronics exporter who lives in Pompano Beach. ``People will be able to learn about what Jainism stands for. We always believe in `live and let live,' `forgive and forget,' and we respect all lives as equal,''' Shah said.

When he moved to South Florida 30 years ago from Philadelphia, there were about 15 Jain families in the area, Shah said.

``Now in Miami-Dade and Broward, there are about 120,'' he said.

After years of fundraising, he joined those families a year ago to open the 4,000-square-foot, $1.45 million temple -- the only one of its kind south of Tampa -- in a strip mall.

Its interior is made of white marble from India, and central to the temple is the Gabhara, a covered sanctuary that has statues of three Tirthankaras, which are enlightened Jain teachers.

The temple, which is volunteer-run, is usually closed during the week, but opens for services on Sundays.

DALAI LAMA

The $600,000 Jain donation to FIU follows a $100,000 gift from the Dalai Lama last year. In a written statement, the Dalai Lama praised FIU's new endowment, saying, ``In my view, Jainism and Buddhism are like twins who have delivered the message of oneness and nonviolence to the world.''

The Dalai Lama's much-publicized financial contribution came at a time that FIU's Religious Studies department faced an uncertain future.

Confronted with a budget gap of almost $35 million, FIU's board of trustees last year considered significantly downsizing the department. Bachelor degrees, for example, would no longer have been offered.

Religion students and faculty members spoke passionately on behalf of their program, and trustees ultimately backed off the downsizing plan. But the department was urged to beef up its fundraising.

``So we've tried very hard,'' Katz said. ``We've had some success so far.''

Parshwanath Vidyapeeth hot pick of foreign students

VARANASI: The International School for Jain Studies (ISJS), Parshwanath Vidyapeeth, Karaundi, is nowadays frequented by foreign students from various countries to study Jain philosophy.

In the recent past, two groups of foreign students from countries like the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, Thailand and Norway made visits for study purpose.

According to Dr SP Pandey, director in-charge of Parshwanath Vidyapeeth, the first group of 13 foreign students was on an education tour from June 14 to 19 while the second group of 12 students stayed for study purpose from June 30 to July 11. Lectures of noted scholars like Prof Anne Valley, department of Religious Studies, University Ottawa, Canada, Prof SN Upadhyay, director, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Prof RS Ambasht, professor emeritus at BHU, and others were organised for them.

The Parshwanath Vidyapeeth, established in 1937 as an Institute of Indology, is an institution of higher learning in Jain Studies.

Foreign students attend lectures on Jainism

VARANASI: On a week long education tour from June 14 to 19, a group of foreigner students
studied Jainism at the International School for Jain Studies (ISJS), Parshwanath Vidyapeeth. The students came from various countries including the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, Thailand and Norway.

According to Dr SP Pandey, director in-charge Parshwanath Vidyapeeth, the students were engaged in various classes during their stay. Prof MNP Tiwari, department of history of art, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), delivered a lecture on Jain Art while Dr Pandey delivered a lecture on Anuvrata (code of conduct for Jain house-holders. Sarah Hadmac, lecturer at Hawaii University, delivered her lecture on Jainism and ecology presenting the relationship between nature and man especially in the light of Jain scriptures. Prof Sudarsh Lal Jain, former dean, Faculty of Arts, also taught code of conduct for Jain monks and penance.

The visiting students also witnessed the puja ceremony held at Shvetambar Temple, Bhelupur. Students discussed with faculty members on various concepts of Jainism in detail and also visited the Jain temples. The group left for New Delhi on Friday.