जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
The suppressors' ladder

Upaśama-śreṇī

उपशमश्रेणी

The ladder that holds delusion down instead of destroying it. It reaches the eleventh rung, and the fall from there is certain.

Beginning at the eighth, the suppressor passes the ninth and tenth and reaches upaśānta-moha, where all of mohanīya is suppressed and none destroyed. What is held down rises again, so the soul must fall — as far as the sixth, or, if death comes, to a heaven.

It may be climbed four times in all and twice in one birth. Its whole use is that a soul which has been up it can later take the other ladder.

must fallSiddhaśilāthe groundthe two ladders begin1Mithyādṛṣṭiwrong beliefheld for antarmuhūrta – less than half a pudgalaparāvarta2Sāsvādanaa taste of right belief, fallingheld for 1 samaya – 6 āvalikā3Miśramixed beliefheld for antarmuhūrta4Avirata-samyagdṛṣṭiright belief, no vowsheld for antarmuhūrta – 33 sāgaropama and a human life5Deśaviratapartial vowsheld for antarmuhūrta – a little under a koṭi of pūrvas6Pramatta-saṃyatafull vows, with negligenceheld for antarmuhūrta7Apramatta-saṃyatafull vows, without negligenceheld for antarmuhūrta8Apūrvakaraṇaunprecedented effort — the two ladders beginheld for antarmuhūrta9Anivṛtti-bādarathe gross passions thinnedheld for antarmuhūrta10Sūkṣma-samparāyaonly subtle greed remainsheld for antarmuhūrta11Upaśānta-mohadelusion suppressed — the fall is certainheld for 1 samaya – antarmuhūrta12Kṣīṇa-mohadelusion destroyedheld for antarmuhūrta13Sayoga-kevalīomniscient, still embodiedheld for antarmuhūrta – a little under a koṭi of pūrvas14Ayoga-kevalīomniscient, motionlessheld for five short vowelsJñānāvaraṇaDarśanāvaraṇaVedanīyaMohanīyaĀyuNāmaGotraAntarāyastill bound4 of 14 · Avirata-samyagdṛṣṭithe destroyers' wayThe fourteen guṇasthānasdurations are Hemacandra's, Triṣaṣṭi appendix 1.3rungs evenly spaced; the durations are printed, not scaledeight squares: the karmas still bound at that rung
The fourteen guṇasthānas, rung by rung — Upaśama-śreṇī highlighted

Measurements and counts

Runs8 → 11
Summit11 · upaśānta-moha
Fallcertain
Climbs allowed4 in all · 2 in one birth

Connected

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10