The Six Substances
Six things exist and nothing else does: souls, matter, the media of motion and rest, space, and time - the last, in this tradition, according to some. None was made and none will end. Five of them stop at the edge of the loka. The sixth, space, does not, and that is the whole reason the universe is the shape it is.
The Tattvārthasūtra's fifth chapter lists them: jīva, the souls, infinite in number; Pudgala, matter, infinite too; and three that are one each - dharma, adharma and ākāśa - the media of motion and rest and the space they lie in. Then, in a separate sūtra with a hedge in it, kāla. Five of the six have extension, are astikāyas; time is not one. They are eternal, fixed in number, and formless, except matter, which is the only one that can be seen or touched.
The map draws them as the overlap they are. Space is everywhere, inside the loka and out into Aloka without end. The two media fill exactly the loka - not less, not more - and where they stop, the loka stops: that edge, which every map in this atlas has drawn since the first, is not a wall but the end of the substance that makes motion possible. Souls and matter are scattered inside; time is ticked along the foot with its hedge.
What each is for is the sūtra's own list, and the second view tables it: motion, rest, room, the body and its breath, the help souls give one another, the fact of change. And under all six one definition of what it means to exist at all: to originate, to cease, and to persist, at once - utpāda, vyaya, dhrauvya.
માપ અને સંખ્યાઓ
| The six | jīva · pudgala · dharma · adharma · ākāśa · kāla |
|---|---|
| With extension | 5 - the astikāyas |
| One each | dharma · adharma · ākāśa |
| Infinite | jīva · pudgala |
| Reach into aloka | ākāśa alone |
| Source | Tattvārthasūtra 5 |