ABSTRACT
Jains are guided by the Three Jewels or 'Triple Gem' of their faith: Right Vision or Viewpoint; Right Knowledge or Understanding, and Right Action or Conduct. Jains in India, and later in disparate immigrant communities, formulated the doctrine of many-sidedness as a survival mechanism as an exercise in speculative thought. The origins of Anekant are found in complex scholarly discourses that have little direct relevance to the lives of most Jain householders but exert a powerful background influence. As well as being a doctrine or philosophical system, Anekant is a sensibility, an attitude of mind that accepts multiple possibilities, the multi-layered nature of reality and the unique 'viewpoint' possessed by each form of life. In a world of increasing cultural convergence, and at the same time heightened awareness of cultural distinctions, the methodology of Anekant is worth considering outside its original Jain context.
