Dharmāstikāya
Not religion: the word here means the medium of motion, one formless substance filling exactly the loka, without which nothing could move. It pushes nothing. It is what makes moving possible, as water is for a fish.
The bhāṣya's likeness is the fish: water does not move the fish, but without water the fish cannot move. Dharma is that, for everything - for the atom crossing the universe in a samaya, for the freed soul rising, for a hand lifting. It is one substance, with innumerable space-points, and it has no motion of its own; it is niṣkriya, still.
Its extent is the fact this atlas has needed since its first map. Dharma fills the loka exactly and stops at its edge, and beyond the edge, in Aloka, there is space but no medium. So a soul that rises with nothing left to weigh it down rises to the last point of the loka and rests there - not because anything blocks it, but because the substance that carried it has ended. The edge of the universe is the edge of dharma.
माप और संख्याएँ
| How many | 1 |
|---|---|
| Space-points | asaṃkhyāta |
| Form | none |
| Extension | yes |
| Active | no - niṣkriya |
| Fills | the whole loka, exactly |
| Does | motion - 5.17 |
| Likeness | the water and the fish |