Plain Jain

How my Venus Fly Trap is turning vegan

This article is written on a Sunday, and although I am a confirmed agnostic, I often find that on this day of the week, my mind turns to more spiritual matters. Perhaps I may still redeem myself at this late stage. My father would have been going to Quaker Meeting, and I was brought up in a very religious household. The sitting in silence part never appealed to me, but I do find a lot of the Quaker ethos attractive.

Ant assassination

However, for all my religious upbringing, I was a fairly horrible child (my daughters would say I have not changed). I remember when about seven years old, practising my football (soccer for my U.S friends) skills, kicking a ball against the wall of our house, which must have driven my parents spare, but kept us out of other trouble I suppose.

Very often there were lines of ants running up and down the wall as they do, and to this day I am ashamed to say, I used them as target practice when kicking the ball. Apart from being extremely bad Karma, for which I will pay dearly along with my many and varied other misdemeanours, this had two interesting consequences in the longer term.

Abolishing suffering

My older brother David was aware of my horrible ant assassinations and went on to develop his philosophy on the need to abolish suffering. That’s going well.

David is one of those people who spouts the dictionary, and just by being in their presence you briefly feel more intelligent. I am living proof this “intellectual osmosis” effect does not work in practice. He was so tuned into the element of cruelty in nature as a child, that it pained him even to see a blackbird collecting worms to feed its young. Of course, without the worms, the baby blackbirds would die.

However, he was so empathetic that he could not stand to see any killing and suffering, even of worms, and particularly ants (ahem). As a modern-day transhumanist, he now advocates for programming out predators, or “veganising the biosphere” as he sometimes puts it. Having seen a mother nightjar swallow one of its own live chicks whole on BBC “Springwatch” this year, I think he may be onto something.

The other indirect consequence of my mini-beast massacres is that in later life I have gone from casual cruelty and assassination to a reverence for all life, and favour a consciousness of our minor role in Gaia. Ironic, and probably a bit late to redeem myself now.

However, this belatedly brings me to the subject of this article which is Jainism. David is an atheist but sometimes promotes the concept of Jainism, because of its advocacy of extreme non-violence. As he is also fascinated by AI, he would perhaps describe himself as a Techno-Jain!

There are quite a few religions that advocate non-violence and vegetarianism, but Jainism takes things a step further. To the uninitiated, and to be fair, that is probably most people, the Jains are an obscure Indian religion. They are perhaps most famous for the fact that in some of their temples, one can see monks sweeping the ground before them, lest they tread on insects, the antithesis of my horrible younger self.

Plain Jain

I won’t bore you with too much about the religion, as there are plenty of other sources to read up more if you seek enlightenment, including a Wikipedia link at the end of this article. However briefly, followers of Jainism take five main vows: non-violence, truth, not stealing, chastity, and non-possessiveness.

Jains believe that the function of souls is to help one another. One of the main principles in Jainism is non-attachment to worldly possessions. For monks and nuns, Jainism requires a vow of complete non-possession of any property, relations, and emotions. (I am hoping that they have an exclusion clause for Teslas, as I still hanker after one once my Medium earnings pick up).

The religion has between four and five million followers, mostly in India. Other large Jain communities can be found in Canada, Europe, and the United States, while for some reason Japan is also home to a fast-growing community of converts.

According to Jains, we have “a bound and ever-changing soul”. They state that there are numerous souls, but every one of them has three qualities: consciousness, bliss, and vibrational energy. I like the sound of the bliss bit.

They also believe in Karma, as in other Indian religions, which for Jains represents the universal cause-and-effect law. Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism all believe in impermanence, but Buddhism incorporates the premise of anatta (“no eternal self or soul”). Hinduism incorporates an eternal unchanging atman (“soul”), while Jainism incorporates an eternal but changing jiva (“soul”).

Jains and non-violence

This is where Jainism gets particularly interesting in the context of this article, and thank you for having faith that I would get to the point in the end. Jains have a key belief in ahimsa (non-violence or non-injury), and believe that one must abandon all violent activity and that without such a commitment to non-violence, all religious behaviour is worthless. For Jains, one must not kill or harm any being, and non-violence is the highest religious duty that must be followed in all situations.

Jain texts say one must renounce all killing of living beings, whether tiny or large, movable or immovable. Its theology teaches that one must neither kill another living being, nor cause another to kill, nor consent to any killing directly or indirectly. Jains emphasise non-violence against all beings not only in action but also in speech and in thought. It states that instead of hate or violence against anyone,

“all living creatures must help each other”.

Jains believe that violence negatively affects and destroys one’s soul, particularly when the violence is done with intent, hate, or carelessness, or when one indirectly causes or consents to the killing of a human or non-human living being. So maybe killing those poor ants was not such a great move.

Ahimsa

Jains believe that the only way to save one’s soul is to protect every other soul, and so the most central Jain teaching, and the heart of Jain ethics, is that of ahimsa (non-violence). In practical terms the biggest part that ahimsa plays in the lives of lay Jains today is in the regulation of their diet: most are lacto-vegetarian, and many are vegan. One of their most influential preachers, Mahavira taught that:

“There is no quality of soul more subtle than non-violence and no virtue of spirit greater than reverence for life.”

Ahimsa is often translated simply as non-violence, but its implications are far wider; it is more than not doing violence, it is more than an attitude, it is a whole way of life. And for modern Jains, the concept also includes the positive elements of working for justice, peace, liberation, and freedom, if doing so does not involve violence.

Mahatma Gandhi was a famous advocate of ahimsa, as it informed his policy of passive resistance, satyagraha (combining the Sanskrit terms for ‘truth’ and ‘holding firmly’) — which he adopted towards the occupying British forces during the period leading up to Indian independence.

Literally translated, ahimsa means to be without harm; to be utterly harmless, not only to oneself and others, but to all forms of life, from the largest mammals to the smallest bacteria. Jains believe that life is sacred regardless of faith, caste, race, or even species.

One of their scriptures teaches:

“Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any creature or living being.”

In following this discipline Jain monks may be observed treading and sweeping in their temples with the utmost care, so as to avoid accidentally crushing crawling insects, or wearing muslin cloths over their mouths in case they should accidentally swallow a fly. As such, their practice is a lesson to my younger self.

So after this brief introduction to Jainism, if you are no more enlightened after reading it, that makes two of us! I won’t be turning Jain any time soon, but I do see much of their philosophy that is worthwhile and good, even if it means I may be reincarnated as a slug.

My Venus Fly Trap is turning vegan

As well as my other failings, I have a rather unhealthy fascination with carnivorous plants, which may seem odd for an aspiring vegan. I don’t know why I find them so fascinating, except that it seems extraordinary to me that the plant kingdom can turn predatory in this way, and up to a point I love observing the circle of life (and death). So to try once more to get to the point, I recently bought a Venus Fly Trap as a form of natural insect control in our kitchen. These plants are native to North and South Carolina in the U.S.

However since I bought it I have not observed it catch a single fly, and I suspect this is instant Karma for my youthful ant assassinations, and it is turning vegan in sympathy with the Jains. I am tempted to take it back to the shop and complain it is failing to match its advertised features under the Trade Descriptions Act. Or perhaps an employment tribunal would be more appropriate: failure to carry out the main task in its job description.

Hope you enjoyed, and have a great Sunday!

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