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ascetics. They observe five major vows, five types of carefulness and the three guards. They practise internal and external austerities with special attention to self-study, devotion, and meditation; and avoid violence to all living beings, as far as is humanly possible.
As ascetics, they accept food by begging, eat only a little, require little sleep, endure hardship, practise universal friendship, adhere to spiritual progress, and avoid acquisitions, associations, and activities that may harm any living being. They observe the vows of total restraint (sarvavirati), but show occasional lapses in their restraint.
Illumination
7 Total Restraint with Carefulness: The seventh stage is called the 'stage of total restraint with carefulness' (apramatta samyati). Aspirants keep themselves away from obstacles in observing their vows.
8 Unprecedented Volition: The eighth stage is called the 'stage of unprecedented volition' (apurva karana nivritti). Aspirants prepare themselves for the destruction or subsidence of the remaining part of the deluding karma. They continue to be attentive and exercise total restraint on their spiritual journey.
9 Desireless Mind: The ninth stage is called 'stage of desireless mind' (anivritti karana). Aspirants destroy or subdue the karma resulting from six types of quasipassions and passions such as laughter, attachment, hatred, fear, grief and aversion. They progress towards controlling the mind but still have subtle passions.
10 Control of Subtle Passions: The tenth stage is called 'stage of control of subtle passions' (suksama samparay). Aspirants at this stage are freed from the remaining passions by subduing or annihilating them.
11 Subsided Delusion: The eleventh stage is called the 'stage of subsided delusion' (upasaant moha). Owing to the subsided passions gaining strength, the illuminated consciousness of the dangerous eleventh stage falls to the lowest stage of bogus faith or to the fourth stage of non-restrained Right Faith. As a result, the ecstatic awareness of the transcendental self is negated and a sense of darkness envelops the aspirant. In this stage aspirants subdue delusion completely, but when dormant passions become operative, aspirants may regress. If they annihilate the dormant passions, they can rise to the twelfth stage.
12 Total Annihilation of Deluding Karma: The twelfth stage is called the 'stage of total annihilation of deluding karma' (ksina moha). In this stage, aspirants ascend higher and higher by destroying all delusion.
These spiritual stages from the seventh to the twelfth are stages of meditation or the stages of illumination. It is to be noted here that the self oscillates between the sixth and the seventh spiritual stage many thousands of times, and when it attains equanimity, it strenuously prepares itself for either subsiding or annihilating the conduct-deluding karma. This oscillation is the result of the struggle between carelessness and carefulness. By the time aspirants reach the stage of careful restraint, they have developed a power for spiritual progress and meditation on the soul. It is through the aid of deep meditation, where external environments cannot affect them that the soul sheds its karma speedily. The aspirants now pursue the higher path.
In consequence, they arrive at the eighth and the ninth stages where the state of profound purity exists. In the tenth stage only a subtle greed can disturb the soul. The
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