Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10 — The Leaf of the Tree

N=1 fine-grained distillation. Source: Jacobi, Jaina Sūtras, SBE XLV (1895), Uttarādhyayana Lecture 10 ("The Leaf of the Tree"), Mahāvīra's sermon to his disciple Indrabhūti Gautama (Archive OCR). Working text pending Phase 7 verification. Method: ../00-methodology.md.

Section role

The most lyrical of the Uttarādhyayana's sermons, and one of the most quoted Jain passages on impermanence and urgency. Every verse ends with the refrain "Gautama, be careful all the while!" (samayaṃ goyama mā pamāyae — "do not be careless even for a moment"). It threads the rarity of human birth, of right belief, and of the chance to practise — through the long ladder of rebirth across the six classes of life — into a single exhortation to vigilance now.

Atomic statements

Sec7-C1: As the fallow leaf falls when its days are gone, so the life of men comes to its close — be careful all the while. (EXHORTATION / IMPERMANENCE)

Utt 10.1: "As the fallow leaf of the tree falls to the ground, when its days are gone, even so the life of men (will come to its close); Gautama, be careful all the while!"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Sec7-C2: As a dew-drop on a blade of Kusa-grass lasts but a short time, so the life of men — be careful all the while. (EXHORTATION / IMPERMANENCE)

Utt 10.2: "As a dew-drop dangling on the top of a blade of Kusa-grass lasts but a short time, even so the life of men; Gautama, be careful all the while!"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Sec7-C3: Since life is fleet and existence precarious, wipe off the sins you have committed; hard are the consequences of actions. (OPERATIONAL / IMPERMANENCE+KARMA)

Utt 10.3–4: "As life is so fleet and existence so precarious, wipe off the sins you ever committed… hard are the consequences of actions; Gautama, &c."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Sec7-C4: Human birth is a rare chance in the long course of time; the soul may be doomed to vast ages in earth-, water-, fire-, wind-, and plant-bodies. (FOUNDATIONAL / IMPERMANENCE+JIVA)

Utt 10.4–9: "A rare chance, in the long course of time, is human birth for a living being… When the soul has once got into an earth-body, it may remain in the same state as long as an Asaṃkhya… [likewise water, fire, wind, vegetable bodies] for an endless time."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Sec7-C5: The soul is driven about in saṃsāra by its good and bad karma. (FOUNDATIONAL / KARMA+JIVA)

Utt 10.15: "Thus the soul which suffers for its carelessness, is driven about in the Saṃsāra by its good and bad Karman; Gautama, &c."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Sec7-C6: Rare upon rare: to be born human, then Ārya, then with all senses, then to hear the Law, then to believe it, then to practise it — for people are engrossed by pleasures. (OPERATIONAL / IMPERMANENCE+SELF_DISCIPLINE)

Utt 10.16–19: "Though one be born as a man, it is a rare chance to become an Ārya… to possess all five organs of sense… to be instructed in the best Law… to believe in it… Though one believe in the Law, he will rarely practise it; for people are engrossed by pleasures."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Step 4 — Clusters

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
Life is fleeting	C1, C2	The falling leaf, the dew-drop — mortality is sudden
Urgency of action	C3, C5	Wipe off sins now; karma drives the soul through saṃsāra
The rarity of the opportunity	C4, C6	Human birth and the chance to practise the Law are vanishingly rare

Step 5 — Internal tensions

None. The whole lecture is a single, mounting exhortation; its refrain unifies it.

Step 6 — Synthesized section principles

Sec7-P1: Life is as fleeting as a falling leaf or a dew-drop

Human life ends as surely and suddenly as the autumn leaf falls or the dew-drop dries on the grass. Mortality is the premise of the whole path.

Tier: EXHORTATION · Domain: IMPERMANENCE · Covers: C1, C2 · Evidence: Utt 10.1–2

Sec7-P2: Therefore, do not be careless even for a moment

"Gautama, be careful all the while." Because life is brief and karma's consequences are hard, one must wipe off accumulated sin now — vigilance is the only fitting response to mortality.

Tier: EXHORTATION · Domain: IMPERMANENCE+SELF_DISCIPLINE · Covers: C3 · Evidence: Utt 10.3–4 (refrain throughout)

Sec7-P3: The soul is driven through endless rebirth by its own karma

Through carelessness the soul is "driven about in the Saṃsāra by its good and bad Karman," passing vast ages in earth-, water-, fire-, wind-, and plant-bodies. The stakes of the present life are immense.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: KARMA+JIVA · Covers: C4, C5 · Evidence: Utt 10.4–15 · Untranslatable: saṃsāra, karma

Sec7-P4: Human birth and the chance to practise the Law are exceedingly rare

To be born human, then Ārya, then whole in the senses, then to hear, believe, and finally practise the Law — each is rarer than the last, "for people are engrossed by pleasures." The opportunity must not be squandered.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: IMPERMANENCE+SELF_DISCIPLINE · Covers: C6 · Evidence: Utt 10.16–19

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Citations
Sec7-P1	C1, C2	Utt 10.1–2
Sec7-P2	C3	Utt 10.3–4
Sec7-P3	C4, C5	Utt 10.4–15
Sec7-P4	C6	Utt 10.16–19

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage: the sermon's arc (fleetingness → urgency → rebirth → rarity) captured.
Orphaned: the enumerations of rebirth-durations across the classes are summarized under P3.
Principles: 4.
Traceability: 100%.

Step 9 — Validation

Standalone comprehension: P1 and P2 are fully frame-independent — the memento mori and the call to vigilance converge widely (Psalm 90's "we fly away"; the Buddhist contemplation of death; "the time is short"). The claim (life is brief; do not waste it) is one of the corpus's strongest convergence candidates. P3 and P4 carry the frame-specific warrants: the soul's transmigration across one-sensed elemental bodies, and the karmic ledger driving saṃsāra, are Jain-distinctive (shared in form with Buddhism/Hinduism but grounded in karma-as-matter and the eternal jīva). For the Atlas: urgency-before-death converges; the rebirth-mechanism diverges.