Jain Vision2020
To Live and Promote a Jain Way of Life
Our Vision for North American Jains, Jain Organizations, and Jainism

 [The attached powerpoint presentation are visuals for this writeup]

Vision for Jains in NorthAmerica - Vision2020 - powerpoint presentation
Specific Targets/Goals for Vision2020

Over the past 30 years we, Jains have accomplished a great deal.  We have over 60 Jain Centers and over 20 temples and thousands of Jain Youths regularly attending Pathshala.  We have conventions where 5000 Jains attend.   In this great land of opportunities and possibilities, we have come a long way.   But as we all know there is a lot more we can do. 

 So now that we’ve had great success for the past 30 years, what mountain should we climb over the next 15 years? Should we build more temples? Should we build more organizations? Should we focus on our kids? Should we share Jainism with our non-Jain friends? Should we focus on rituals and traditions.  What should our vision be for our future in North America?

 About two years ago JAINA established a think-tank called the Long Range Planning Committee.  This team interviewed and surveyed over 500 people and organizations including JAINA,YJA, YJP, Local Jain Centers and Jains in small towns and large cities.  They also looked at strong operational, service and religious-oriented  Jewish and Swaminaryan organizations.  Based on the research and your feedback, a vision has emerged which we would like to share with you.

 
Jain Vision 2020

Jains have been on a path of Non-Violence, Non-Absolutism (Anekantvad), and Non-possesion (Aparigrah) for thousands of years. And recently Science is walking with us – hand in hand on this path.   For thousands of years, Jains have believed in meditation, Yoga, animal compassion, vegetarianism, environmentalism,  equal rights for women, respect for other cultures and forgiveness. Now more than ever, the Western World can leverage Jain philosophy.  Only now North America and the rest of the world are discovering and practicing what Jains have known and practiced  for thousands of years. 

 Jains are sitting on a treasure and have so much to offer.  Imagine if we had shared this treasure with the world years ago, this world would have been a very different place.  But it is not too late.  When you plant a seed, the soil has to be right, there has to be enough light and water for a great big tree to grow.  The environment has to be conducive.  In the same way, the North Americans are conducive to sharing the treasures which are in Jainism.

 The Vision that we have for Jainism in North America is,

 Jain Vision2020

To Live and Promote a Jain Way of Life
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Our Vision for North American Jains, Jain Organizations, and Jainism

Evolve - our JWOL practices

Expand – awareness in Jains and Non-Jains

Educate – and impact trends

Energize – our organization

 In expanding on the elements of our vision, first what do we mean by Jain Way of Life.   Jain Way of Life is life full of happiness, challenge, discovery, and spiritual growth. JWOL is mindfulness and contemplation.  JWOL is living a life grounded in thoughts words and speech of our three core  principles: 

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--> Non-Violence – (that is Ahimsa) vegetarianism and use of non-animal tested products as well as Non-Violence even in our thoughts.  Controlling Anger, Greed, Ego, and Deceit.

 Non Possessiveness – (that is Aparigraha) practice is where we  balance our possessions and desires for them.

  Non Absolutism – (that is Anekantvad) is where we strive to keep our mind open and understand other views.

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The vision is not just to LIVE a Jain Way of life but to PROMOTE it.  Promotion of Jain Way of Life does not require to convert people by going door to door but sharing the  treasures in a respectful and impactful way.

 The following is a further elaboration of our vision in four major focus areas (also refer to detail goal and metrics).

 Evolve - our traditional Jain practices by adopting the Jain Way of Life to the modern, North American lifestyle.

The Jewish tradition is strong.  Compare that to the American Indian tradition which is nearly extinct.  Research shows and we see all around us that our young people are turned off by strong ritualistic focus. We Jains don’t want to be extinct, we want to thrive for many 1000’s of years.  To cater to our Youths, just one of the many goals for this Focus area is to: Evolve our rituals – to refresh 6 rituals and add 6 new rituals over the next 15 years. 

In evolving our practices, we want to raise the bar.  We as Jains want to avoid silk, leather, and animal tested products. Probably 5% of Jains avoid this today and we need to target 25% of the Jain population to evolve their practices.

 Expand – awareness in Jains and Non-Jains

Our findings showed that one out of every two Jain will marry a non-Jain.  That’s chemistry, but let’s look at that as an opportunity.  Here our goal is to educate our kids on JWOL.  And if they do decide to marry non-Jains, we want these kids to be so strong and confident and educated Jains.  And through love and care we want them to  teach their non-Jain spouse JWOL.  We believe today that only 20% mix marriages are living a JWOL and our vision is to expand to 60% of the mix marriages living a JWOL.   To achieve this, we need to come up with specific literature, web-training material for mix marriage couples so they can appreciate the richness and relevancy of JWOL – and the best part is – the non-Jain spouse need not convert to Jainism.

Educate – and impact trends and create awareness through strategic partnerships with media, institutions, and non-Jain organizations

In North America, hardly anyone knows about Jainism. Try doing a Google or Amazon search and you will get 20x more hits on Buddhism than Jainism.  Today – perhaps only 1 million North Americans know about Jainism.  Let’s make our goal to share Jain treasures with 6 million people by year 2020.  To accomplish this, we need to

Message Jainism - so that it’s easy to understand – when someone asks what is Jainism – we give a short crisp response.

Promote Jainism -  promote it with a passion and create positive awareness

Brand Jainism -  with consistent look and feel.  We see branding all around us - Jesus Christ, Deepak Chopra, Sony, Oprah, Buddhism, etc.

Position it   - relative to other schools of thought and science so it is easy to understand and compare.

Develop Strong Alliances  –  with 1000’s of other groups who  share our passion – animal rights, humane society, interfaith, etc. similar vision.   They are hungry to hear the JWOL message.  And we may learn a thing or two from them as well.

 And the final and the most important focus is:

 Energize – our organization through volunteers and donations and create a vibrant professionally run central Jain organization.

 There are 100,000 Jains – 70 Vibrant Jain institutions – 30 JAINA committees in North America. To reach our vision, all these organizations and people need to work in harmony.   JAINA will be the catalyst.  It has the talent.  It has the leadership.  But no organization can reach its Vision without the fuel of financial resources.   We need JAINA to be a well funded machine. 

 Unlike today where JAINA receives an average donation of $7 per family, our target is that by 2020 years from now JAINA will receive $200 per family per year.  That will give JAINA an operating budget of $10` million.  Imagine what we can do with such strong budget.  We can hire 30 full time highly qualified and talented staff people and with 1000’s of volunteers to carry out the vision to Live and Promote a Jain Way of Life.

 
Conclusion:

To accelerate and achieve this vision – Jain centers need to re-engineer themselves – not just Jain Centers need to re-engineer themselves but JAINA needs to re-engineer itself.  Not Just JAINA and Jain Center but each and every one us has to re-engineer ourselves.  And only through this will we be able to achieve our Vision for North America – to passionately "Live and Promote a Jain Way of Live”

 If we succeed in meeting this vision, our families and our kids will have a better and happier life

During our retirement, we’ll have an organization to channel our creativity and talent.    If we succeed in our Vision by 2020 - ahimsa will be a household world.  Our children will be proud to say I am a Jain and heads will turn.  Vegetarianism will be the preferred food choice in restaurants, and finally in business schools – Non-Absolutism will be part of every course.

 And together we can Evolve - our JWOL practices; Expand – awareness in Jains and Non-Jains; Educate – and impact trends; Energize – our organization

 The world is changing, change is inevitable.  Let’s manage the change. Let’s be proactive about the change.  Our vision is to plan and execute towards our destiny to Live and Promote a Jain Way of Life.

Source:

Yogendra Jain, Chairman of JAINA Long Range Planning Committee
Prem Jain, Chintan Shah, Dr. Manoj Jain, Dr. Sushil Jain,  Sunit Jain, Soha Shah

Vision for Jains in NorthAmerica - Vision2020 - powerpoint presentation
Specific Targets/Goals for Vision2020(excel spreadsheet)

www.jwol.org