The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1135 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
12.72Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
). This enables a tolerance which may account in part for the remarkable survival of Jainism in India. Whilst accounting for less than 0.5 per cent of India's vast population, Jain influence on the religious, social, political, and economic life of the country has been and is quite out of proportion to their numbers. Until the last cent., Jainism was strictly an Indian phenomenon, but many Gujarati Jains, who had settled in E. Africa, migrated to Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of pan-Africanization policies; so that today there are estimated to be 25,000 Jains in Europe, largely in the UK. Some estimates suggest a similar number may be found in N. America.
Jakoblar
(Doenmeh, Islamic sect)
:
Jakugo
or chakugo
(Jap., ‘words of arrival’). A summary statement in Zen of the true understanding of a
k
an
.
Jakuhitsu Genk
(1290–1367).
Japanese Zen master of the
Rinzai
school. He became a monk at the age of 15 and was taught by Yaku
Tokken in
Kamakura
. When he asked Yaku
for his
matsugo
(his final, dying word, and also the word which will lead to enlightenment), Yaku
slapped him and he immediately experienced enlightenment. He went to China, 1320–6, where he was acknowledged as a master of Ch’an. On his return to Japan, he became an itinerant, seeking realization of truth in mountains and solitude. When Eigen-ji was built in 1361, he became the first abbot, and contributed decisively to the
rinka
or
ringe
style of Zen monasticism, ‘under the forest’ or ‘thicket’, in which the ideal of simplicity and non-attachment was maintained.

Other books

Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman
The Hammer of Eden by Ken Follett
Becoming the Alpha by Ivy Sinclair
Us and Uncle Fraud by Lois Lowry
Wolfsbane: 3 (Rebel Angels) by Gillian Philip