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## First Understanding: Nature and Types
Formless non-living entities are not known through sensory perception. They are known through the scriptures (Agamas). There are ten types of formless non-living entities: 1. Dharma-āstikāya, 2. The realm of Dharma-āstikāya, 3. The regions of Dharma-āstikāya, 4. Adharma-āstikāya, 5. The realm of Adharma-āstikāya, 6. The regions of Adharma-āstikāya, 7. Ākāśa-āstikāya, 8. The realm of Ākāśa-āstikāya, 9. The regions of Ākāśa-āstikāya, and 10. Adhāsamaya. These distinctions are explained in the Prajñāpanā Sūtra.
1. **Dharma-āstikāya:** Dharma-āstikāya is the instrumental cause that helps in the movement of self-moving living beings and pudgalas. Just as water helps fish to swim, a stick helps an old person to walk, and a lamp helps a sighted person to see, similarly, Dharma-āstikāya helps in the movement of living beings and pudgalas as an instrumental cause. It is important to note that Dharma-āstikāya does not motivate living beings and pudgalas to move, but only assists them. Just as water does not move the fish, a stick does not move the old person, and a lamp does not show the sighted person, but only assists them, similarly, Dharma-āstikāya assists in movement but does not motivate it.
The existence of Dharma-āstikāya has not been accepted by any other philosophers besides Jainism. Therefore, a natural curiosity arises: what is the evidence for the existence of Dharma-āstikāya? In response, Jain philosophers and scholars have stated that it is necessary to accept Dharma-āstikāya as the regulatory element that governs the movement of living beings and pudgalas. If such a regulatory element is not accepted, then the orderly arrangement of this universe cannot be established. The movement of inert and conscious substances is an empirical fact. If they were to move freely in infinite space, then the orderly arrangement of this world would not be possible. Infinite pudgalas and infinite living beings would move freely in infinite space, becoming so scattered that their meeting and appearance in the form of a fixed creation would become impossible. Therefore, Dharma-āstikāya, the regulatory element that governs the natural movement of living beings and pudgalas, has been accepted.
Only by accepting the existence of Dharma-āstikāya can the division of the world (lok) and non-world (alok) be justified. Despite their natural tendency to move, living beings and pudgalas cannot go outside the world (lok) into the non-world (alok). An atom, from the smallest atom to the largest, can move up to fourteen rajū-lengths. Beyond that, it cannot move in a single region. Who regulates this? Ākāśa cannot be the regulator of this movement because Ākāśa is equally present in the non-world (alok). Therefore, the regulator of this movement is Dharma-āstikāya. Where Dharma-āstikāya is present, there is the movement of living beings and pudgalas, and where Dharma-āstikāya is not present, there is no movement of living beings and pudgalas.
1. "The movement of pudgalas and living beings is due to Dharma-āstikāya. It is the instrumental cause, just as water is always present for fish in the world."