Federation of Jain Associations in North America
JAINA Education Committee
Jain eLibrary
Thanks-Giving Meal Prayer and Jaina Education Committee - Activity Report Nov 2017
Thanks-Giving Meal Prayer
Start the Thanks-Giving Meal with the seven contemplations, or with whatever traditional grace or prayer you prefer to use to express our gratitude.
Honor the Food
- This food is the gift of the whole universe: the earth, the sky, numerous living beings and much hard, loving work.
- May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to be worthy to receive it.
- May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation.
- May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that we reduce the suffering of living beings, preserve our planet, and reverse the process of global warming.
- May we ask for forgiveness from all living beings that we may have harmed, intentionally or unintentionally. May peace and compassion grow in ourselves and extend to all around us.
- May we pray that all the people everywhere in the world will avoid inflicting harm on animals and fellow human beings and practice nonviolence and compassion.
- We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our community, and nourish our ideal of serving all living beings.
Jaina Education Committee Activities
The primary activities of Jaina Education Committee are as follows:
Jain Pathashalas of North America
- We prepare, publish, and distribute Jain Päthashälä Education Material to support all Jain Centers of North America for their Pathashalas. Following is the summary:
- We have more than 4000 students (from elementary age to College age) attending Päthashäläs at various Jain Centers across North America.
- We have about 400 Pathshala teachers and other volunteers
- Published 8 Pathashala text books for Elementary(4 books), Middle School (2 books), High School (1 book) and College (1 book) age students
- Published Jain Academic Bowl Manual (JAB) covering entire spectrum of Jain philosophy, Conduct, History, Literature, and Stories. It contains 400 pages. It is known as Compendium of Jainism
- Published 6 Reference books (Jainism- Reverence for Life, Essence of World Religions, The Book of Compassion, English Pratikraman Observance of Self Reflection, Jain Ritual Sutras with Meaning, Jain Puja Book).
- We offer 3 day Jain Workshop to teach fundamentals of Jainism to Pathashala teachers, Jain youths, Jain professionals, and Adults
- To view short summary of all Pathashala books: http://www.jainlibrary.org/elib_master/jaina_edu/jaina_edu_book/$JES000_Pathshala_Books_Summary_000011_data.pdf
Jain eLibrary Website
- We support and manage Jain eLibrary website in order to provide reference literature to the Päthashälä teachers, students, adult Swädhyäy groups, and Jain academicians around the world.
- The website has 54,500 registered members who download about 300 books every-day.
- About 700,000 Books and Articles have been downloaded from the website since 2009.
- The website contains 10,000 books, 5000 articles, 3000 magazines, 1000 audio files. It consist of Jain Agam literature, Commentary literature, Philosophy, Conduct, Rituals, History literature of all major Jain sects and some interfaith literature.
- We add more than 200,000 pages of literature every year. At present we have about 3.5 million pages of Jain literature available on the website.
- Everyday more than 1000 people visit the website. So far more than 2 million people visited the website.
- The website is completely non-commercial site.
Other Supports
- We support YJA and YJP convention activities by providing Educational Material free of charge to our youths and young Jain professionals and attend all YJA conventions.
- We support and manage Jain Academic Bowl (JAB) Youth competition activities during JAINA and YJA convention.
- We support Jain summer school (ISSJS) program and Jain scholars and academicians by providing them Jain educational material free of charge.
The success of Jaina Education Päthashälä Books, eLibrary website, and JAB activities are well known to all of you.
Request for your Financial Support
The success of Jaina Education Päthashälä Books, eLibrary Website, Workshop and JAB activities are well known to all of you. All Jaina Education Committee, eLibrary project, and JAB committee members are volunteers. However our eLibrary scanning activity, Pathshala book design, layout activity, Website expenses, book deficit etc.. adds up to $25,000 to $30,000 per year.
If you would like to contribute using credit card/PayPal/Bank check/ Bank Transfer in US $ or in Indian rupees, please use the following link located in Jain eLibrary website:
http://www.jainelibrary.org/donation1.php (use appropriate option)
If you would to contribute by Check (US dollars), please write to Jaina Education and mail it at following address
Jaina Education
509 Carriage Woods Circle
Raleigh, NC 27607 USA
+1-919-859-4994,2nd Jain Workshop at Raleigh, NC USA from Friday December 8, 2017 to Sunday December 10, 2017
We have some seats available to the above Jain workshop. Please use the following Registration Form link if you plan to attend the Workshop
Registration Form:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhtvRCmka6wodYcZL27P9fiu97p__IsUtyuq_kWyttx1ueDA/viewform
If you have any difficulty to filling out the Workshop registration form or if you have any other question, please call or send an e-mail to Sejal Shah or Pravin Shah.
Sejal Shah | Workshop Administrator | 919 609 0034 Cell | |
Pravin K Shah | Workshop Moderator | 919 889 1900 Cell |
With Warm Regards
__________________________________Pravin and Arti Shah and
Members of JAINA Education, Jain eLibrary, and JAB Committees
919 859 4994
www.jainelibrary.org