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I practice the Jain religion. It is a belief deeply based and founded on non violence. It has often been confused with Buddhism, or said it is an off shoot of the Buddhist religion, both are not true. Jainism is believed to have developed at the same time as Buddhism as two separate religions.
A Jain holds 5 core beliefs.
1. Non - Violence. Every animal, being, person, plant, bug etc has a soul and Karma to go along with it. To destroy that life, robs it of the chances it may have had during life to get rid of it's karma. The idea of non-violence for Jains goes much deeper than that though. We do not eat root vegetables (garlic, onions, carrots) as they kill the plant, nor would we ever raise a hand against another person in self defense. To cause suffering is to cause violence, so we must also be careful to watch our words and actions.
2. No Stealing. The idea of no stealing is very concrete. If it is not yours do not take it. However this also applies in other ways for us, such as not paying a person for a service they provided, or not offering someone the full price for what something is worth.
3. Non Materialism, Non Attachment. It's just stuff. It's just a body. the laptop I am typing to you on may be nice, but in the end it's nothing more than plastic, and some metal. This idea is to not be attached to the items you own. It can also refer to people (monks take this part of the oath vs. house holders where it only applies to possessions) where you detach yourself from all people. Meaning monks forswear relationships: their children, husband/wife, friends and family, and gain complete non attachment.
4. Celibacy. For house holders it is only getting it on with the one you are married to. For monks it means no sex period. House holders can go completely celibate as well. (It's just that most of us don't)
5. Truthfulness. Do not lie, but do not harm others. If what you are going to say would bring more harm than otherwise, stay silent.
Each of these can be expanded hugely - but this short description is the bases the Jain belief system.
A few other things of note - Jainism does not have a stance on God. Many Jains personally do and do not believe in God, or gods. On the creation of the universe,it is said that the universe was always here, maybe not as we now it now, but still here, and will always continue existing in one form or another.
Another item of note is that Jainism is a non-absolutism religion. Meaning that a Jain would see all other religious as being correct and not correct at the same time. There is no absolute path or truth. I'm not very good at explaining this one.
The end goal of Jainism is to remove all Karma from the soul, thus ending the everlasting cycle of life and death. (In the Jain belief system there is no good or bad Karma - It's all just karma.)
Karma while can come back to a person as reward or punishment in the next life, is still anchoring a soul to the everlasting cycle of death and rebirth. There for receiving Karma of any kind is not desirable. Imagine the soul as a lens on a camera, then it gets a smudge on it and another and another as time goes on. Eventually all your photos will look like something out a dream sequence, or possible blacked out all together. As a photographer you would carefully wipe the smudges off off the camera with a special cloth. Those smudges blocking everything would be a person's karma, not allowing the soul to shine. And the cloth would be following the five attributes, or other meditations.
There are four different levels of reincarnation, demigods, humans, hell beings, and plants and micro-organisms.
That's all I'm typing for now! Let me know if you have questions!
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What is Jainism and how to become a Jain?
