Egoism, Hedonism, and the Jains

I am slowly falling asleep in class as the professor continues to lecture on Karma in the Jain religion. She mentions that Karma in the Jain religion is broken up into two different kinds, ghati ("destructive") and aghati ("non-destructive”). Aghati Karma affects only the soul and ghati Karma affects the body and can be broken up into four types of Karma: Happiness-determining, Body-determining, Status-determining, and Longevity- determining. You accumulate these four types of Karmas by doing bad deeds against others; such as fining happiness in hurting someone or making fun of someone’s lower status. She talked on for a bit about these four types of destructive Karmas and just as I am about to move from my “I’m just resting my eyes” stage to “I am now asleep” stage she says that based on what we know about the Janis we can clearly see that they were very egoist. Egoistic? I was shocked. I may be wrong in saying this, but I thought that Egoism was defined as each person having one goal: looking out solely for one’s own welfare by doing what brings pleasure to oneself. I didn’t, and still don’t, think that Jains can be egoistic when one of their “natural laws of the universe” says that you accumulate destructive karma (energy) if you treat others badly: you gain happiness-determining karma by finding happiness in hurting others, like seeking revenge; you gain body-determining karma by not loving the ugly or making fun of the unattractive; you gain status-determining karma by making fun of the people below you or praising you own elevated status; and you lose longevity-determining karma by killing someone (leading to a shortening of your life). I think that none of this sounds very egoistic. If anything it sounds hedonistic. Hedonism is defined as having the goal of looking out for one’s welfare by doing what brings pleasure to oneself but with the consideration of others. This “consider of others” is what the belief of destructive karma is based on. From that moment on in class I couldn’t even pretend to be uninterested in what my professor was saying because I kept on thinking to myself, “This can’t be right. Jainism isn’t egoistic it’s hedonistic.” I was just about to ask this one little twist in words that was bothering me it was time to go. On Monday the first thing I’m going to do is bring this issue up. Maybe I don’t understand hedonism/egoism too much or maybe I don’t understand the Jains. And then again maybe I do. I can’t even finish this blog and be satisfied with my answer. I will definitely follow up on this Monday night.