Living Beings and Things Without Life: From the Sacred Jain Scripture - Uttaradhyayana, Part 1 of 2

Jainism teaches that the path to enlightenment is rooted in nonviolence and minimizing harm to all living things, including plants and animal-people. We now present selections from the sacred Jain scripture Uttaradhyayana, specifically the 36th lecture, “On Living Beings and Things Without Life” from the book “Sacred Books of the East Volume 45:” Jaina Sutras, Part 2, translated by Hermann Jacobi.

THIRTY-SIXTH LECTURE. ON LIVING BEINGS AND THINGS WITHOUT LIFE

“Now learn from me with attentive minds the division of Living Beings and Things without life which a monk must know who is to exert himself in self-control.

The Living Beings and the Things without life make up this world (Lôka); but the space where only Things without life are found is called the Non-world (Alôka).

The Living Beings and the Things without life will be described with reference to 1. substance, 2. place, 3. time, and 4. development.

A. Things without life.

Things without life are 1. possessing form, 2. formless; the formless things are of ten kinds, those possessing form are of four kinds.

The ten kinds of formless things: 1. Dharma [principle of motion], 2. its divisions, 3. its indivisible parts; 4. Adharma [principle of rest], 5. its divisions, 6. its indivisible parts; 7. space, 8. its divisions, 9. its indivisible parts, and 10. Time. […]

The four kinds of things possessing form are 1. compound things, 2. their divisions, 3. their indivisible parts, and 4. atoms.

Compound things and atoms occur as individual things and apart (or different from others), in the whole world and in parts of the world; this is their distribution with regard to place.

Subtle things occur all over the world, gross things only in a part of it. I shall now give their fourfold division with regard to time.

With regard to the continuous flow (or development of a thing) it is without beginning and without end; but with regard to its existence (as an individual thing) it has both a beginning and an end. […]

B. Living Beings.

I shall now, in due order, deliver the division of living beings.

Living beings are of two kinds: 1. those still belonging to the Samsâra [cycle of death and rebirth], and 2. the perfected souls (siddhas). The latter are of many kinds, hear me explain them. […]”