Dear YM 2 Reader, Jai Jinendra! October was a month of giving back, renewing old friendships, and making new ones with YJA’s National Service Day, Mid-Atlantic Camping Trip, and South Region FrightFest. We now look forward to the month of November with Jain youth gathering around the world for YJA’s International Dinner, expanding their views with the Northeast Seminar Series, and rocking the vote in the US national elections. YJA is always looking to improve on past events and find new ideas to help young Jains connect across the regions. Send us an email at [email protected]with ideas for events. Keep reading our newsletter to stay up to date with YJA and contact us at [email protected]to share your views on whatever interests you! Lastly on behalf of the 2010-2011 Executive Board, we wish you a very Happy Diwali and a New Year that is bright with joy, sparkling with success, and glowing with warmth! Sincerely, Your 2010-2011 YJA Executive Board Welcome Message YJA YJA YJA YJA Young Minds 2 NOVEMBER 2010 YOUNG JAINS OF AMERICA SAVE THE DATE! UPCOMING YJA EVENTS • November 2 nd - Election Day • November 12 th - YJA National Dinner • November 18 th - Northeast Speaker Event PUBLICATION COMPLIED BY AMI MARU sarvathā sahu sukhī thāo samatā sahu samacharo sarvatra divyatā vyāpo shānti sarvatra vistaro. A universal prayer that wishes for happiness, peace, and a balanced life for all. Jain Symbols 2 Rock the Vote 2 Sweet Tooth 3 Important Dates 3 What’s Love Got to do with it? 4-5 Living a Complaint Free Life 5 Past Photographs 6 National Dinner 7 Donate to YJA 8 Inside this issue:
Transcript
Dear YM2 Reader,
Jai Jinendra! October was a month of giving back, renewing old friendships, and making
new ones with YJA’s National Service Day, Mid-Atlantic Camping Trip, and South Region
FrightFest. We now look forward to the month of November with Jain youth gathering
around the world for YJA’s International Dinner, expanding their views with the
Northeast Seminar Series, and rocking the vote in the US national elections.
YJA is always looking to improve on past events and find new ideas to help young Jains
connect across the regions. Send us an email at [email protected] with ideas for events.
Keep reading our newsletter to stay up to date with YJA and contact us at
Lastly on behalf of the 2010-2011 Executive Board, we wish you a very Happy Diwali and
a New Year that is bright with joy, sparkling with success, and glowing with warmth!
Sincerely,
Your 2010-2011 YJA Executive Board
Welcome Message
Y J AY J AY J AY J A
Young Minds222 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 Y O U N G J A I N S O F A M E R I C A
SAVE THE
DATE !
UPCOM ING
Y J A EVENTS
• November 2nd -
Election Day
• November 12th -
YJA National
Dinner
• November 18th -
Northeast
Speaker Event
P U B L I C A T I O N
C O M P L I E D B Y
A M I M A R U
sarvathā sahu sukhī thāo
samatā sahu samacharo
sarvatra divyatā vyāpo
shānti sarvatra vistaro.
A universal prayer that
wishes for happiness, peace,
and a balanced life for all.
Jain Symbols 2
Rock the Vote 2
Sweet Tooth 3
Important Dates 3
What’s Love Got to do with it?
4-5
Living a Complaint Free Life
5
Past Photographs 6
National Dinner 7
Donate to YJA 8
Inside this issue:
P A G E 2
AUM
Rock the Vote!
Do You Know Jain Symbols?
In Jainism, Aum is regarded to be a condensed form of reference to the five pa-rameshthis, by their initials A+A+A+U+M (o3m). The Dravyasamgrah quotes a Prakrit line: "oma ekākṣara pañca-parameṣṭhi-nāmā-dipam tatkabhamiti ceta "arihatā asarīrā āyariyā taha uvajjhāyā muṇiyā"
"Aum" is one syllable made from the initials of the five parameshthis. It has been said: "Arihanta, Ashiri, Acharya, Upadhyaya, Muni". In Short, 'a' + 'a' + 'ā' + 'u' + 'm' = aum a = Arihanta a = Asrira (Siddha) ā = Acharya u = Upadhyaya m = Muni (Sadhu)
Thus, (om namah) is a short form of the Navkar Mantra. From eJainism (http://www.ejainism.com/jainsymbols.html)
who you decide to vote for, or whether you decide to vote at all, it is important that we all stay politically aware and informed on issues that affect us as individuals and as members of the Jain community. The following offices are up for election on this day: • All 435 U.S. House of
Representative seats
• 36 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats
• 38 State and territorial governorships
• Many state legislatures and local races
To find your polling place and learn more information, visit: www.electionland.com. Please share this information with your family and friends.
Hello YJAers! Over the past few months, Young Jains of America has partnered with Rock the Vote to help ensure that the Jain community is registered to vote this election season. This effort has proved successful in raising awareness about the elections and getting members of our community registered! We hope that you too, if eligible, have registered. Election Day is November 2nd, so please mark your calendars. Regardless of
Y O U N G M I N D S 2
By
Khushbu
Vora
Sweet Tooth By Pavak Shah
P A G E 3 Y O U N G J A I N S O F A M E R I C A
Hats off to the excellent folks at the Post Punk Kitchen (www.theppk.com) for this amazing
recipe. The PPK is a fantastic source for all recipes vegan, so definitely check them out. Ingredients 3/4 cup canola oil 2 cups sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 cup soymilk 2 cups all purpose flour 3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips ½ cup chopped pecans (optional) Directions: mix dry ingredients together, add liquids, mix until smooth, and add chocolate chips and optional nuts, folding them in. Spoon dough onto a baking sheet and pat down into 1-inch, ½-inch thick disks and bake for 10 minutes at 350F. Make sure to cool for 5-10 minutes before trying to move off to a cooling rack.
making sure there aren’t any large chunks of butter left. Slowly mix in warm milk until a dough forms- you want the dough to pull away from the walls of the bowl as you mix and becomes elastic. Adding too much milk will cause the dough to become overly sticky and instead of stretching when you pull it will simply come apart. Knead the dough well to make sure everything is incorporated and let rise for about 1-1.5 hours. After the dough has roughly doubled in size, pull it out and knead it again on a floured surface. Roll the dough into a cylinder and cut it into 6 equal pieces. Flatten each piece down and roll 2 pieces of chocolate into the center. Pinch the joints shut and roll gently with your hands to smooth it into one continuous piece of dough.
With a very sharp knife cut a shallow slit into the top of the dough. Transfer each piece of dough onto a greased baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees or until the dough starts to brown slightly. Cool on a rack, sprinkle with a little powdered sugar and enjoy! To enjoy the buns after they’ve cooled as though they were fresh out of the oven place one on a plate in the microwave along with a cup with a little bit of water in it and microwave for 1 minute.
This is a modification of a recipe I got from a book that seems similar to a type of German savory chocolate bun. Makes for a great breakfast bread and goes well with a cup of coffee. Ingredients 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 2 tbsp sugar 3/4 tsp yeast 2 tbsp butter 2 heaping tbsp cornstarch 6 pieces of chocolate (I used 70% dark) Warm milk Directions: Mix all of the dry ingredients except the chocolate in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and work into the flour with your fingers,
Y O U N G M I N D S 2
Tie A String Around Your FingerTie A String Around Your FingerTie A String Around Your FingerTie A String Around Your Finger
• November 5th Diwali: Mahavir Nirvana & Gautam Swami
Kevalgyan
• December 31st Bhagavan Parshvanath’s Janma
Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Schokobrotchen bun
P A G E 4
• He failed in an effort to become the Vice President at the age of 47.
• He lost a Senatorial race again at the age of 49.
• Finally, he was elected the President of the Unites States at the age of 52.
Today the world knows him as Abraham Lincoln. Quintessential 2:
Under the original deal, he warned the distributors of the film, i.e. Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, that the movie would be expensive, around $120 million, and not the conventional 1-2 hours of movie. However, as the costs for the movie soared out of control to
more than $200 million and rumors of him tormenting his crew surfaced in Los Angeles, he was asked to cut several planned scenes. Not ready to compromise with his passionate vision, he had no option but to invest his own fees and forgo his profit percentage. The movie was made; it hit the theatres in 1997. It turned out to be a smash hit, broke all the existing records, swept away 11 Oscars including the Best Picture, the Best Director, the Best Original Score, and the Best Original Song.
Overjoyed with the success of the movie, the distributors paid him much more than his original fees. Who is this visionary director? He is the writer, director and co-producer of Titanic – James
Cameron. These are just few of the hundreds of thousands of people who have kept the flame of passion burning against all the odds. The only thing common between these dignitaries is the passion in their lives - the passion to do something for their community, their society, their nation AND their passion to work consistently towards realizing their goals. Why is Passion necessary in life?
With passion adrenaline rushes faster, blood circulation improves, it creates fire in the belly, heart exhibits a more caring attitude, soul finds tranquility, mind thinks faster and each cell of the body functions properly. This helps the sleep to deepen, thereby helping the body to repair its worn out cells. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "If
a man is called to be a street-
sweeper, he should sweep streets
even as Michelangelo painted, or
Beethoven composed music, or
Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should
sweep streets so well that all the
hosts of heaven and earth will pause
to say, here lived a great street-
sweeper who did his job well."
What does it take to turn a mission and a vision to reality? Why are great people great? Why do people love the work they do? The term ‘Passion’ first appeared in second century Christian texts to describe the suffering of Jesus Christ – now turned into a movie called The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson. However, the term has taken a more general sense now. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is ‘an intense enthusiasm for something’. Time and again the world has gained by this intense enthusiasm - passionate work of people. Be it the work of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, or Alexander Graham Bell. They all worked passionately to transform their vision to reality. Let’s see some examples below. Quintessential 1:
• He failed in business at the age of 21.
• He was defeated in a legislative race at the age of 22.
• He failed again in business at the age of 24.
• He overcame the death of his sweetheart at the age of 26.
• He had a nervous breakdown at the age of 27.
• He lost a Congressional race at the age of 34.
• He lost a Senatorial race at the age of 45.
What’s Love Got to do with it?
Y O U N G M I N D S 2
By
Ashish
Chowdhary
“Whatever you do, do it
passionately; forget what the
world thinks about you”
“Don’t let the
train of your
journey called
life pass you by.
You are meant to
board it even if it
means having to
run passionately
just to catch it.”
Living a Complaint Free Life
What’s Love Got to do with it? Continued If passion means quitting your job and doing some-thing crazy, just do it. If passion means dancing madly on the streets, just do it. If passion means working even when you are not being paid for it – just do it. If passion means sleeping when the world works and working when the world sleeps, just do it. Whatever you do, do it
passionately; forget what the world thinks about you. If you believe in what you do, just go for it. Passion is therefore the most precious and essen-tial tonic, rather ‘elixir’ that no scientist but you alone can produce for your body. Don’t let the train of your journey called life pass you by. You are meant to board it even if it means having to run passionately just to catch
it. Life is not forever and there are strictly no tomorrows in it. All you have is today and more precisely, this moment, ‘yehpal’! If you miss it, you miss it forever. So wake up and allow yourselves to be taken over by the storm called Passion and start tasting the joy of living.
Y O U N G J A I N S O F A M E R I C A P A G E 5
Y O U N G M I N D S 2
Date: Thursday, November 18, 2010 Time: 6:30pm (Appetizers) 7:30pm – 9:00pm Venue: Boston University: CAS Room 522 Do you see the glass as half full or half empty? Do you find that people around you bring you up or bring you down? Do you worry about the next bit of bad luck or look forward to the good luck that will surely arrive? Come Join us as we share our journey to living a life with less complaining and more happiness.
YJA/JIVA Seminar Series
Photographs and Still Frames in your Mind
PAST EVENTS - OCTOBER
Y O U N G M I N D S 2
P A G E 6
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2010
Come enjoy great food and dine with amazing
people in LA, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and many more cities! Email us at [email protected] to find a
Please Make a Contribution to YJA Today to Pass Jain Principles &
Practice onto the Next Generation of Youth!
Jai Jinendra! The Executive Board for the Young Jains of America (YJA) plans to be very active in bringing Jain principles to all youth across the country. We would like to take this opportunity to briefly discuss our current projects and how they will make a difference to the YJA community.
• National Swadhyay hosted by a group of scholars to raise awareness about Jain Principles and ideals and address youth problems, difficulties, and concerns.
• Website Reconstruction to develop a professional website for Jain youth and create a forum to share Jain principles.
• Regional Retreats from the East to West Coasts to instill a sense of religious and cultural pride among Jain youth.
• National Service Day to allow youth to participate in charitable community activities and “Be the Change.”
• National Dinners in Jain communities to encourage youth to both develop new friendships among Jain youth and strengthen current relationships within local Jain youth groups.
With the support of donors like you, YJA has grown to be the largest Jain Youth Organization in the World. For the YJA Executive Board, this an honor to be a part of a group that motivates and inspires countless lives.
Please consider supporting our efforts with a personal contribution to YJA today. A contribution of any amount will provide tremendous support to instill a sense of among youth about their Jain heritage. The ultimate goal of the YJA Executive Board is to prepare today's Jain youth to become tomorrow's Jain leaders. Not only do we appreciate your donations, but the fundraising team would like to hear from you! Please e-mail [email protected] with your comments, suggestions, or recommendations for improvement
by YJA. If you have any questions regarding Young Minds, please e-mail [email protected]. Jai Jinendra and Michhami Dukkadam. Thank you for your wonderful contribution. Best Regards, Young Jains of America Executive Board Email: [email protected] Phone: 757-YJA-ORG1
YOUNG JAINS OF AMERICA CONTRIBUTION FORM
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