stage of non-regression ［不退位］ ( avaivartika, avivartika, or avinivartanīya;  futai-i): Also, stage of non-retrogression. One of the stages of bodhisattva practice. One who reaches this stage never backslides, always advancing in Buddhist practice toward the goal of Buddhahood. In the stage of non-regression, a bodhisattva neither retreats to a lower stage of bodhisattva practice nor regresses to the stages of voice-hearers and cause-awakened ones or to the four evil paths—the realms of hell, hungry spirits, animals, and asuras. T’ien-t’ai (538–597) defined the first stage of security among the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice as the stage of non-regression. See also three kinds of non-regression.