In the Buddha’s Words An Anthology of Discourses From the Pali Canon Chapter IX. SHINING THE LIGHT OF WISDOM

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In the Buddha’s Words An Anthology of Discourses From the Pali Canon Chapter IX. SHINING THE LIGHT OF WISDOM

Author: Bhikku Bodhi Publisher: Wisdom Publications. Somerville, MA. Publish Date: 2005-6-28 Review Date: 2022-4-21 Status:📚

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for Early Buddhism, liberation requires direct knowledge and full understanding of the internal and external sense bases and all the phenomena that arise from them. This seems to establish an apparent correspondence between Buddhism and empirical science, but the type of knowledge sought by the two disciplines differs. Whereas the scientist seeks impersonal, “objective” information, the Buddhist practitioner seeks direct insight into the nature of these phenomena as components of lived experience.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5196 The still mind, calm and collected, is the foundation for insight. The still mind observes phenomena as they arise and pass away, and from sustained observation and probing exploration arises “the higher wisdom of insight into phenomena” (adhipaññādhammavipassanā ).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5198 As wisdom gathers momentum, it penetrates more and more deeply into the nature of things, culminating in the full and comprehensive understanding called enlightenment (sambodhi).

Highlight(pink) - Location 5200 The Pāli word translated here as “wisdom” is paññā, the Pāli equivalent of Sanskrit prajñā,
Highlight(pink) - Location 5206 The Pāli word paññā is derived from the verbal root ñā (Skt: jñā), meaning “to know,” preceded by the prefix pa (Skt: pra), which merely gives the root meaning a more dynamic nuance. So paññā/prajñā means knowing or understanding, not as a possession, but as an action: the act of knowing, the act of understanding, the act of discerning.
Highlight - Location 5203 The Nikāyas take paññā not only as a point of doctrine but as a rich theme for imagery. Thus, Texts IX,1(1)–(2) speak of paññā respectively as a light and a knife. It is the supreme light because it illuminates the true nature of things and dispels the darkness of ignorance. It is a knife—a sharp butcher’s knife—because it cuts through the tangled mass of the defilements and thereby opens the way to liberation.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5541 Wisdom as a Light
Highlight(pink) - Location 5541 “There are, O monks, these four lights. What four? The light of the moon, the light of the sun, the light of fire, and the light of wisdom. Of these four lights, the light of wisdom is supreme.” (Anguttara Nikaya 4:143; II 139)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5544 “Sisters, suppose a skilled butcher or his apprentice were to kill a cow and carve it up with a sharp butcher’s knife. Without damaging the inner mass of flesh and without damaging the outer hide, he would cut, sever, and carve away the inner tendons, sinews, and ligaments with the sharp butcher’s knife. Then having cut, severed, and carved all this away, he would remove the outer hide and cover the cow again with that same hide. Would he be speaking rightly if he were to say: ‘This cow is joined to this hide just as it was before’?” (from Majjhima Nikaya 146: Nandakovāda Sutta; III 274–75)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5551 “Sisters, I have given this simile in order to convey a meaning. This is the meaning: ‘The inner mass of flesh’ is a term for the six internal bases. ‘The outer hide’ is a term for the six external bases. ‘The inner tendons, sinews, and ligaments’ is a term for delight and lust. ‘The sharp butcher’s knife’ is a term for noble wisdom—the noble wisdom that cuts, severs, and carves away the inner defilements, fetters, and bonds.” (from Majjhima Nikaya 146: Nandakovāda Sutta; III 274–75)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5214 Contemporary Buddhist literature commonly conveys two ideas about paññā that have become almost axioms in the popular understanding of Buddhism. The first is that paññā is exclusively nonconceptual and nondiscursive, a type of cognition that defies all the laws of logical thought; the second, that paññā arises spontaneously, through an act of pure intuition as sudden and instantaneous as a brilliant flash of lightning.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5217 If paññā defies all the laws of thought, it cannot be approached by any type of conceptual activity but can arise only when the rational, discriminative, conceptual activity of the mind has been stultified. And this stopping of conceptualization, somewhat like the demolition of a building, must be a rapid one, an undermining of thought not previously prepared for by any gradual maturation of understanding.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5220 Thus, in the popular understanding of Buddhism, paññā defies rationality and easily slides off into “crazy wisdom,” an incomprehensible, mind-boggling way of relating to the world that dances at the thin edge between super-rationality and madness.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5222 Such ideas about paññā receive no support at all from the teachings of the Nikāyas, which are consistently sane, lucid, and sober.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5223 First, far from arising spontaneously, paññā in the Nikāyas is emphatically conditioned, arisen from an underlying matrix of causes and conditions. And second, paññā is not bare intuition, but a careful, discriminative understanding that at certain stages involves precise conceptual operations. Paññā is directed to specific domains of understanding. These domains, known in the Pāli commentaries as “the soil of wisdom” (paññābhūmi), must be thoroughly investigated and mastered through conceptual understanding before direct, nonconceptual insight can effectively accomplish its work. To master them requires analysis, discrimination, and discernment.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5228 One must be able to abstract from the overwhelming mass of facts certain basic patterns fundamental to all experience and use these patterns as templates for close contemplation of one’s own experience.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5230 The conditional basis for wisdom is laid down in the three-tier structure of the Buddhist training. As we have seen, in the three divisions of the Buddhist path, moral discipline functions as the basis for concentration and concentration as the basis for wisdom. Thus the immediate condition for the arising of wisdom is concentration. As the Buddha often says: “Develop concentration, monks. One who is concentrated sees things as they really are.”2 To “see things as they really are” is the work of wisdom; the immediate basis for this correct seeing is concentration.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5234 Since concentration depends on proper bodily and verbal conduct, moral discipline too is a condition for wisdom.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5241 From this, we can see that wisdom does not arise automatically on the basis of concentration but depends upon a clear and precise conceptual understanding of the Dhamma induced by study, reflection, and deep contemplation of the teachings.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5243 As a factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, wisdom is known as right view
Highlight(pink) - Location 5246 right view is twofold: conceptual right view, a clear intellectual grasp of the Dhamma; and experiential right view, the wisdom that directly penetrates the Dhamma.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5248 Conceptal right view, called “right view in conformity with the truths” (saccānulomika-sammādiṭṭhi), is a correct understanding of the Dhamma arrived at by studying and examining the Buddha’s teachings in depth.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5249 Such understanding, though conceptual rather than experiential, is by no means dry and sterile. When rooted in faith in the Buddha’s enlightenment and driven by a strong determination to realize the truth of the Dhamma, it serves as the germ from which experiential right view evolves and thus becomes a critical step in the growth of wisdom.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5252 Experiential right view is the realization of the truth of the Dhamma—above all, of the Four Noble Truths—in one’s own immediate experience
Highlight(pink) - Location 5254 To arrive at direct penetration, one begins with correct conceptual understanding of the teaching and, by practice, transforms this understanding into direct perception.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5255 If conceptual right view is compared to a hand—a hand that grasps the truth with the aid of concepts—then experiential right view might be compared to an eye. It is the eye of wisdom, the vision of the Dhamma, that sees directly into the ultimate truth, hidden from us for so long by our greed, hatred, and delusion.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5616 There are four kinds of nutriment for the sustenance of beings that already have come to be and for the support of those about to come to be. What four? They are: physical food as nutriment, gross or subtle; contact as the second; mental volition as the third; and consciousness as the fourth. (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5619 With the arising of craving there is the arising of nutriment. With the cessation of craving there is the cessation of nutriment. The way leading to the cessation of nutriment is just this Noble Eightfold Path; (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5627 “When, friends, a noble disciple understands suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering, in that way he is one of right view (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5629 “And what is suffering, what is the origin of suffering, what is the cessation of suffering, what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair are suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering. This is called suffering. (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5633 “And what is the origin of suffering? It is this craving that leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination. This is called the origin of suffering. (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5635 “And what is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonattachment. (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5684 There are these four kinds of clinging: clinging to sensual pleasures, clinging to views, clinging to rules and observances, and clinging to a doctrine of self.16 (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5685 With the arising of craving there is the arising of clinging. With the cessation of craving there is the cessation of clinging. The way leading to the cessation of clinging is just this Noble Eightfold Path; (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5737 [name-and-form]
Highlight(pink) - Location 5743 Feeling, perception, volition, contact, and attention—these are called name. The four great elements and the form derived from the four great elements—these are called form. (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5745 With the arising of consciousness there is the arising of name-and-form. With the cessation of consciousness there is the cessation of name-and-form. The way leading to the cessation of name-and-form is just this Noble Eightfold Path; (Majjhima Nikaya 9: Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta; I 46–55)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5803 THE DOMAIN OF WISDOM
Highlight(pink) - Location 5273 “the domain of wisdom,” the areas to be explored and penetrated by insight.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5275 the five aggregates; the six sense bases; the elements (in different numerical sets); dependent origination; and the Four Noble Truths.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5277 The Five Aggregates.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5277 are the main categories the Nikāyas use to analyze human experience.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5278 (1) form (rūpa), the physical component of experience;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5278 (2) feeling (vedanā), the “affective tone” of experience—either pleasant, painful, or neutral;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5279 (3) perception (saññā), the identification of things through their distinctive marks and features;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5280 (4) volitional formations (saṅkhārā), a term for the multifarious mental factors involving volition, choice, and intention;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5281 (5) consciousness (viññāṇa), cognition arisen through any of the six sense faculties—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
Highlight - Location 5313
Highlight(pink) - Location 5815 With the arising of nutriment there is the arising of form. With the cessation of nutriment there is the cessation of form… This Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of form; (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5823 “And what, monks, is feeling? There are these six classes of feeling: feeling born of eye-contact, feeling born of ear-contact, feeling born of nose-contact, feeling born of tongue-contact, feeling born of body-contact, feeling born of mind-contact. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5824 This is called feeling. With the arising of contact there is the arising of feeling. With the cessation of contact there is the cessation of feeling. This Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of feeling; (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5831 “And what, monks, is perception? There are these six classes of perception: perception of forms, perception of sounds, perception of odors, perception of tastes, perception of tactile objects, perception of mental phenomena. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5832 With the arising of contact there is the arising of perception. With the cessation of contact there is the cessation of perception. This Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of perception; (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5835 “And what, monks, are volitional formations? There are these six classes of volition:26 volition regarding forms, volition regarding sounds, volition regarding odors, volition regarding tastes, volition regarding tactile objects, volition regarding mental phenomena. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5838 With the arising of contact there is the arising of volitional formations. With the cessation of contact there is the cessation of volitional formations. This Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of volitional formations; (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5841 “And what, monks, is consciousness? There are these six classes of consciousness: eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, nose-consciousness, tongue-consciousness, body-consciousness, mind-consciousness. This is called consciousness. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5843 With the arising of name-and-form there is the arising of consciousness.27 With the cessation of name-and-form there is the cessation of consciousness. This Noble Eightfold Path is the way leading to the cessation of consciousness; (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5887 “The four great elements, monk, are the cause and condition for the manifestation of the form aggregate. Contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the feeling aggregate, the perception aggregate, and the volitional formations aggregate. Name-and-form is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate.” (from Samyutta Nikaya 22: 82, abridged; 100–103 = Majjhima Nikaya 109, abridged; III 15–19)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5282 Examination of the five aggregates, the topic of the Khandhasaṃyutta (Saṃyutta Nikāya, chapter 22), is critical to the Buddha’s teaching for at least four reasons. First, the five aggregates are the ultimate referent of the first noble truth, the noble truth of suffering
Highlight(pink) - Location 5284 and since all four truths revolve around suffering, understanding the aggregates is essential for understanding the Four Noble Truths as a whole. Second, the five aggregates are the objective domain of clinging and as such contribute to the causal origination of future suffering. Third, clinging to the five aggregates must be removed to attain liberation. And fourth, the kind of wisdom needed to remove clinging is precisely clear insight into the true nature of the aggregates.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5812 “And how, monks, are there four phases? I directly knew form, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation. I directly knew feeling … perception … volitional formations … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5296 the constituents of each aggregate and shows that each aggregate arises and ceases in correlation with its own specific condition; the Noble Eightfold Path is the way to bring each aggregate to an end.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5304 Because the five aggregates that make up our ordinary experience are the objective domain of clinging (upādāna), they are commonly called the five aggregates subject to clinging
Highlight(pink) - Location 5805 there are these five aggregates subject to clinging… (Samyutta Nikaya 22:56; III 58–61)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5307 One either grasps them and takes possession of them, that is, one appropriates them; or one uses them as the basis for views about one’s self or for conceit (“I am better than, as good as, inferior to others”), that is, one identifies with them.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5309 As the Nikāyas put it, we are prone to think of the aggregates thus: “This is mine, this I am, this is my self”
Highlight(pink) - Location 5310 the notion “This is mine” represents the act of appropriation, a function of craving (taṇhā).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5311 The notions “This I am” and “This is my self” represent two types of identification, the former expressing conceit (māna), the latter views (diṭṭhi).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5314 Giving up craving is so difficult because craving is reinforced by views, which rationalize our identification with the aggregates and thus equip craving with a protective shield.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5315 The type of view that lies at the bottom of all affirmation of selfhood is called identity view (sakkāyadiṭṭhi).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5316 The suttas often mention twenty types of identity view, obtained by considering one’s self to stand in any of four relations to each of the five aggregates: either as identical with it, as possessing it, as containing it, or as contained within it.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5318 “the instructed noble disciple,” having seen with wisdom the selfless nature of the aggregates, no longer regards the aggregates as a self or the belongings of a self.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5890 “Here, monk, the uninstructed worldling … regards form as self, or self as possessing form, or form as in self, or self as in form. He regards feeling as self … perception as self … volitional formations as self … consciousness as self, or self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in self, or self as in consciousness. That is how identity view comes to be.” (from Samyutta Nikaya 22: 82, abridged; 100–103 = Majjhima Nikaya 109, abridged; III 15–19)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5900 “The pleasure and joy, monk, that arise in dependence on form: this is the gratification in form. That form is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change: this is the danger in form. The removal and abandonment of desire and lust for form: this is the escape from form. The pleasure and joy that arise in dependence on feeling … in dependence on perception … in dependence on volitional formations … in dependence on consciousness: (from Samyutta Nikaya 22: 82, abridged; 100–103 = Majjhima Nikaya 109, abridged; III 15–19)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5908 “Any kind of form whatsoever, monk, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near—one sees all form as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ “Any kind of feeling whatsoever … Any kind of perception whatsoever … Any kind of volitional formations whatsoever … Any kind of consciousness whatsoever, whether past, future, or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, inferior or superior, far or near—one sees all consciousness as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ “When one knows and sees thus, monk, then in regard to this body with consciousness and in regard to all external signs, I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit no longer occur within.” (from Samyutta Nikaya 22: 82, abridged; 100–103 = Majjhima Nikaya 109, abridged; III 15–19)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5319 Adopting any of these views is a cause of anxiety and distress. It is also a leash that keeps us bound to the round of rebirths—see above,

Highlight(pink) - Location 5916 The Characteristic of Nonself
Highlight(pink) - Location 5321 All the defilements ultimately stem from ignorance, which thus lies at the bottom of all suffering and bondage. Ignorance weaves a net of three delusions around the aggregates. These delusions are the notions that the five aggregates are permanent, a source of true happiness, and a self. The wisdom needed to break the spell of these delusions is the insight into the five aggregates as impermanent (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and nonself (anattā). This is called the direct knowledge of the three characteristics of existence (tilakkhaṇa).
Highlight - Location 5325 Some suttas seem to make insight into one or another of the three characteristics alone sufficient for reaching the goal. However, the three characteristics are closely interwoven, and thus the most common formula found in the Nikāyas builds upon their internal relationship.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5327 IX,4(1)(c)—the formula uses the characteristic of impermanence to reveal the characteristic of suffering, and both together to reveal the characteristic of nonself. The suttas take this indirect route to the characteristic of nonself because the selfless nature of things is so subtle that often it cannot be seen except when pointed to by the other two characteristics. When we recognize that the things we identify as our self are impermanent and bound up with suffering, we realize that they lack the essential marks of authentic selfhood and we thereby stop identifying with them.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5945 What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is nonself. What is nonself should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ When one sees this thus as it really is with correct wisdom, the mind becomes dispassionate and is liberated from the taints by nonclinging … Feeling is impermanent…. Perception is impermanent…. Volitional formations are impermanent…. Consciousness is impermanent. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:45; III 44–45)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5919 “Monks, form is nonself. For if, monks, form were self, this form would not lead to affliction, and it would be possible to determine form: ‘Let my form be thus; let my form not be thus.’ But because form is nonself, form leads to affliction, and it is not possible to determine form: ‘Let my form be thus; let my form not be thus.’32 … Feeling is nonself…. Perception is nonself…. Volitional formations are nonself…. Consciousness is nonself. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:59; III 66–68)
Highlight - Location 8133 32 The sutta offers two “arguments” for the thesis of nonself. The first contends that the aggregates are nonself on the ground that we cannot exercise mastery over them. Since we cannot bend the aggregates to our will, they are all “subject to affliction” and therefore cannot be considered our self. The second argument, introduced just below, posits the characteristic of nonself on the basis of the other two characteristics. Whatever is impermanent is in some way bound up with suffering; whatever is impermanent and bound up with suffering cannot be identified as our self.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5926 “What do you think, monks, is form permanent or impermanent?”—“Impermanent, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent suffering or happiness?”—“Suffering, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”—“No, venerable sir.” “Is feeling permanent or impermanent?… Is perception permanent or impermanent?… Are volitional formations permanent or impermanent? … Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?”—“Impermanent, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent suffering or happiness?”—“Suffering, venerable sir.”—“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”—“No, venerable sir.” (Samyutta Nikaya 22:59; III 66–68)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5332 The different expositions of the three characteristics all thus eventually converge on the eradication of clinging. They do so by showing, with regard to each aggregate, “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.” This makes the insight into nonself the culmination and consummation of the contemplation of the three characteristics.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5337 insight into the five aggregates as impermanent, suffering, and nonself induces disenchantment (nibbidā), dispassion (virāga), and liberation (vimutti).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5938 “Seeing thus, monks, the instructed noble disciple becomes disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with volitional formations, disenchanted with consciousness. Becoming disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:59; III 66–68)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5338 One who attains liberation subsequently wins “the knowledge and vision of liberation,” the assurance that the round of rebirths has indeed been stopped and nothing more remains to be done.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5951 “If, monks, a monk’s mind has become dispassionate toward the form element, it is liberated from the taints by nonclinging. If his mind has become dispassionate toward the feeling element … toward the perception element … toward the volitional formations element … toward the consciousness element, it is liberated from the taints by nonclinging. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:45; III 44–45)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5953 “By being liberated, it is steady; by being steady, it is content; by being content, he is not agitated. Being unagitated, he personally attains Nibbāna. (Samyutta Nikaya 22:45; III 44–45)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5989 the Six Sense Bases
Highlight(pink) - Location 5345 The six internal and external sense bases provide a perspective on the totality of experience different from, but complementary to, the perspective provided by the aggregates. The six pairs of bases are the sense faculties and their corresponding objects, which support the arising of the respective type of consciousness. Because they mediate between consciousness and its objects, the internal sense bases are spoken of as the “bases for contact” (phassāyatana), “contact” (phassa) being the coming together of sense faculty, object, and consciousness.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5350
Highlight(pink) - Location 5992 “And what, monks, is that all? Without directly knowing and fully understanding the eye, without developing dispassion toward it and abandoning it, one is incapable of destroying suffering. Without directly knowing and fully understanding forms … eye-consciousness … eye-contact … and whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition … without developing dispassion toward it and abandoning it, one is incapable of destroying suffering. “Without directly knowing and fully understanding the ear … the mind … and whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition … without developing dispassion toward it and abandoning it, one is incapable of destroying suffering. (Samyutta Nikaya 35:26; IV 17–18)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5351 What the first five sense bases and their objects signify is obvious enough, but the sixth pair, mind (mano) and phenomena (dhammā), presents some difficulty. If we treat the two terms as parallel to the other internal and external bases, we would understand the mind base to be the support for the arising of mind-consciousness (manoviññāṇa) and the phenomena base to be the objective sphere of mind-consciousness. On this interpretation, “mind” might be taken as the passive flow of consciousness from which active conceptual consciousness emerges, and “phenomena” as purely mental objects such as those apprehended by introspection, imagination, and reflection.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5355 The Abhidhamma and the Pāli commentaries, however, interpret the two terms differently. They hold that the mind base comprises all classes of consciousness, that is, they include within it all six types of consciousness. They also hold that all actual entities not comprised in the other sense bases constitute the phenomena base. The phenomena base, then, includes the other three mental aggregates—feeling, perception, and volitional formations—as well as types of subtle material form not implicated in experience through the physical senses.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5364 The Nikāyas suggest an interesting difference between the treatment given to the aggregates and the sense bases. Both serve as the soil where clinging takes root and grows, but while the aggregates are primarily the soil for views about a self, the sense bases are primarily the soil for craving. A necessary step in the conquest of craving is therefore restraint of the senses.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5367 Monks and nuns in particular must be vigilant in their encounters with desirable and undesirable sense objects. When one is negligent, experience through the senses invariably becomes a trigger for craving: lust for pleasant objects, aversion toward disagreeable objects (and a craving for pleasant escape routes), and a dull attachment to neutral objects.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5369 In one of his earliest discourses popularly known as “The Fire Sermon”—Text IX,4(2)(b)—the Buddha declared that “all is burning.” The “all” is the six senses, their objects, the types of consciousness arisen from them, and the related contacts and feelings. The way to liberation is to see that this “all” is burning with the fires of defilements and suffering.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6005 “Monks, all is burning. And what, monks, is the all that is burning? The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, and whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition—whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of delusion; burning with birth, aging, and death; with sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair, I say. (Samyutta Nikaya 35:28; IV 19–20)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5372 to dispel ignorance and generate true knowledge, we must contemplate all the sense bases and the feelings that arise through them as impermanent, suffering, and nonself. This, according to Text IX,4(2)(c), is the direct way to the attainment of Nibbāna.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6021 “And what, monks, is the way that is suitable for attaining Nibbāna? Here, a monk sees the eye as impermanent, he sees forms as impermanent, he sees eye-consciousness as impermanent, he sees eye-contact as impermanent, he sees as impermanent whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition, whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant … “He sees the ear as impermanent … He sees the mind as impermanent, … “He sees the eye as suffering … he sees as suffering whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition, whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant … “He sees the eye as nonself … he sees as nonself whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition, whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant. (Samyutta Nikaya 35:147–49, combined; IV 133–35)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5374 An alternative route, commended by Text IX,4(2)(d), is to see that the six senses are empty—empty of a self or of anything belonging to a self. Since consciousness arises via the six sense bases, it too is devoid of self—Text IX, 4(2)(e).
Highlight - Location 6039 Consciousness Too Is Nonself
Highlight - Location 6043 Doesn’t eye-consciousness arise in dependence on the eye and forms?” “Yes, friend.”
Highlight - Location 6044 “If the cause and condition for the arising of eye-consciousness would cease completely and totally without remainder, could eye-consciousness be discerned?” “No, friend.” “In this way, friend, this has been declared, disclosed, and revealed by the Blessed One thus: ‘For such a reason this consciousness is nonself.’
Highlight - Location 6055 “So too, a monk does not recognize either a self or anything belonging to a self in these six bases for contact. Since he does not recognize anything thus, he does not cling to anything in the world. Not clinging, he is not agitated. Being unagitated, he personally attains Nibbāna. (Samyutta Nikaya 35:147–49, combined; Ittivutaka 133–35)

Highlight(pink) - Location 5376 The Elements.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5378 The most important groups consist of eighteen, four, and six elements.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6060 (a) The Eighteen Elements
Highlight(pink) - Location 5379 The eighteen elements are an elaboration of the twelve sense bases. They consist of the six sense faculties, the six sense objects, and the six types of sense consciousness.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5380 Since six types of consciousness have been extracted from the mind base, the mind element that remains must be a simpler type of cognitive event. The Nikāyas do not specify its precise function. The Abhidhamma identifies it with a type of consciousness that fulfills more rudimentary roles in the process of cognition than the more discriminative mind-consciousness element.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5383 contains a simple enumeration of the eighteen elements. Contemplation of these elements helps to dispel the notion that an abiding subject underlies the changing contents of experience.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5384 experience consists of different types of consciousness, each of which is conditioned, arisen in dependence on its own specific sense faculty and object. Thus to ascertain the composite, diversified, conditioned nature of experience dispels the illusion of unity and solidity that ordinarily obscures correct cognition.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6060 “Monks, I will teach you the diversity of elements. The eye element, form element, eye-consciousness element; the ear element, sound element, ear-consciousness element; the nose element, odor element, nose-consciousness element; the tongue element, taste element, tongue-consciousness element; the body element, tactile-object element, body-consciousness element; the mind element, mental-phenomena element, mind-consciousness element. This, monks, is called the diversity of elements.” (Samyutta Nikaya 14:1; II 140)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6064 (b) The Four Elements
Highlight(pink) - Location 5387 The four elements are earth, water, heat, and air. These represent four “behavioral modes” of matter: solidity, fluidity, energy, and distension.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6065 “Monks, there are these four elements. What four? The earth element, the water element, the heat element, the air element. (Samyutta Nikaya 14:37–39, combined; II 175–77)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5388 The four are inseparably united in any unit of matter, from the smallest to the largest and most complex.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5389 The elements are not merely properties of the external world, however, but also of one’s own body. Thus one must contemplate them in relation to one’s body, as the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta teaches
Highlight(pink) - Location 5391 these elements can be viewed: as impermanent and conditioned; from the triple standpoint of gratification, danger, and escape; and by way of the four-truth pattern.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6082 (c) The Six Elements
Highlight(pink) - Location 5392 The six elements include the four physical elements, the space element, and the element of consciousness.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6084 There are these six elements: the earth element, the water element, the fire element, the air element, the space element, and the consciousness element. (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5393 how to contemplate the six elements in relation to the physical body, the external world, and conscious experience.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6085 The earth element may be either internal or external. What is the internal earth element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to, that is, head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone-marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, stomach, feces, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to: this is called the internal earth element … Now both the internal earth element and the external earth element are simply earth element. And that should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6092 Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to, that is, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil-of-the-joints, urine, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to: this is called the internal water element … Now both the internal water element and the external water element are simply water element. And that should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6097 The fire element may be either internal or external. What is the internal fire element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to, that is, that by which one is warmed, ages, and is consumed, and that by which what is eaten, drunk, consumed, and tasted gets completely digested, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to: this is called the internal fire element … Now both the internal fire element and the external fire element are simply fire element. And that should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6103 The air element may be either internal or external. What is the internal air element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to, that is, up-going winds, down-going winds, winds in the belly, winds in the bowels, winds that course through the limbs, in-breath and out-breath, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to: this is called the internal air element … Now both the internal air element and the external air element are simply air element. And that should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6109 The space element may be either internal or external. What is the internal space element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is space, spatial, and clung-to, that is, the holes of the ears, the nostrils, the door of the mouth, and that [aperture] whereby what is eaten, drunk, consumed, and tasted gets swallowed, and where it collects, and whereby it is excreted from below, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is space, spatial, and clung-to: this is called the internal space element … Now both the internal space element and the external space element are simply space element. And that should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ (from Majjhima Nikaya 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta; III 240–43)
Highlight - Location 6115 “Then there remains only consciousness, purified and bright.40 What does one cognize with that consciousness? One cognizes: ‘[This is] pleasant’; one cognizes: ‘[This is] painful’; one cognizes: ‘[This is] neither-painful-nor-pleasant.’ In dependence on a contact to be felt as pleasant there arises a pleasant feeling.41 When one feels a pleasant feeling, one understands: ‘I feel a pleasant feeling.’ One understands: ‘With the cessation of that same contact to be felt as pleasant, its corresponding feeling—the pleasant feeling that arose in dependence on that contact to be felt as pleasant—ceases and subsides.’

Highlight(pink) - Location 5394 Dependent Origination.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5396 The ulitmate purpose of the teaching on dependent origination is to reveal the conditions that sustain the round of rebirths and thereby to show what must be done to gain release from the round. To win deliverance is a matter of unraveling the causal pattern that underlies our bondage, and this process begins with understanding the causal pattern itself.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5400 The doctrine is usually expounded as a sequence of twelve factors joined into a chain of eleven propositions;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5403 The series is expounded in two ways: by way of origination (called anuloma or forward order), and by way of cessation (called paṭiloma or reverse order).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5409 Because of (1) ignorance (avijjā), lack of direct knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, we engage in wholesome and unwholesome activities of body, speech, and mind; these are (2) volitional formations (saṅkhārā), in other words, kamma. Volitional formations sustain consciousness from one life to the next and determine where it re-arises; in this way volitional formations condition (3) consciousness (viññāṇa). Along with consciousness, beginning from the moment of conception, comes (4) “name-and-form” (nāmarūpa), the sentient organism with its physical form (rūpa) and its sensitive and cognitive capacities (nāma). The sentient organism is equipped with (5) six sense bases (saḷāyatana), the five physical sense faculties and the mind as organ of cognition. The sense bases allow (6) contact (phassa) to occur between consciousness and its objects, and contact conditions (7) feeling (vedanā). Called into play by feeling, (8) craving (taṇhā) arises, and when craving intensifies it gives rise to (9) clinging (upādāna), tight attachment to the objects of desire through sensuality and wrong views. Impelled by our attachments, we again engage in volitional actions pregnant with (10) a new existence (bhava). At death this potential for new existence is actualized in a new life beginning with (11) birth (jāti) and ending in (12) aging-and-death (jarāmaraṇa).4
Highlight(pink) - Location 6134 “And what, monks, is dependent origination? With ignorance as condition, volitional formations [come to be]; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form; with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases; with the six sense bases as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling; with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging; with clinging as condition, existence; with existence as condition, birth; with birth as condition, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering. (Samyutta Nikaya 12:1; II 1–2)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5419 From the above, we can see that the commentarial interpretation treats the twelve factors as spread out over a span of three lives, with ignorance and volitional formations pertaining to the past, birth and aging-and-death to the future, and the intermediate factors to the present. The segment from consciousness through feeling is the resultant phase of the present, the phase resulting from past ignorance and kamma; the segment from craving through existence is the karmically creative phase of the present, leading to renewed existence in the future. But existence is distinguished into two phases: one, called kamma-existence (kammabhava), constitutes the active side of existence and belongs to the causal phase of the present life; the other, called rebirth-existence (upapattibhava), constitutes the passive side of existence and belongs to the resultant phase of the future life.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5425 The twelve factors are also distributed into three “rounds”: the round of defilements (kilesavaṭṭa) includes ignorance, craving, and clinging; the round of action (kammavaṭṭa) includes volitional formations and kamma-existence; and all the other factors belong to the round of results (vipākavaṭṭa). Defilements give rise to defiled actions, actions bring forth results, and results serve as the soil for more defilements. In this way the round of rebirths revolves without discernible beginning.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5429 This method of dividing up the factors should not be misconstrued to mean that the past, present, and future factors are mutually exclusive. The distribution into three lives is only an expository device which, for the sake of concision, has to resort to some degree of abstraction. As many suttas in the Nidānasaṃyutta show, groups of factors separated in the formula are inevitably interwoven in their dynamic operation.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5433 The formula demonstrates how rebirth can take place without the presence of a substantial self that maintains its identity as it transmigrates from one life to the next. Without a self to hold the sequence together, what connects one life to the next is nothing other than the principle of conditionality. Conditions in one existence initiate the arising of the conditioned phenomena in the next existence;
Highlight(pink) - Location 5437 The whole process ends only when its underlying springs—ignorance, craving, and clinging—are extirpated by wisdom.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5443 Several suttas hold up dependent origination as a “teaching by the middle” (majjhena tathāgato dhammaṃ deseti). It is a “teaching by the middle” because it transcends two extreme views that polarize philosophical reflection on the human condition.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5445 eternalism (sassatavāda), asserts that the core of human identity is an indestructible and eternal self, whether individual or universal. It also asserts that the world is created and maintained by a permanent entity, a God or some other metaphysical reality.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5447 annihilationism (ucchedavāda), holds that at death the person is utterly annihilated. There is no spiritual dimension to human existence and thus no personal survival of any sort.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6202 “This world, Kaccāna, for the most part depends upon a duality—upon the idea of existence and the idea of nonexistence.46 But for one who sees the origin of the world as it really is with correct wisdom, there is no idea of nonexistence in regard to the world. And for one who sees the cessation of the world as it really is with correct wisdom, there is no idea of existence in regard to the world.47 (Samyutta Nikaya 12:15; II 16–17)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6210 “‘All exists’: Kaccāna, this is one extreme. ‘All does not exist’: this is the second extreme. Without veering toward either of these extremes, the Tathāgata teaches the Dhamma by the middle: (Samyutta Nikaya 12:15; II 16–17)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5448 For the Buddha, both extremes pose insuperable problems. Eternalism encourages an obstinate clinging to the five aggregates, which are really impermanent and devoid of a substantial self; annihilationism threatens to undermine ethics and to make suffering the product of chance.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5453 Dependent origination thereby offers a cogent explanation of the problem of suffering that on the one hand avoids the philosophical dilemmas posed by the hypothesis of a permanent self, and on the other avoids the dangers of ethical anarchy to which annihilationism eventually leads.

Highlight(pink) - Location 6215 The Continuance of Consciousness
Highlight(pink) - Location 5455 As long as ignorance and craving remain, the process of rebirth continues; kamma yields its pleasant and painful fruit, and the great mass of suffering accumulates. When ignorance and craving are destroyed, the inner mechanism of karmic causation is deactivated, and one reaches the end of suffering in saṃsāra.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5460 the conditions for “the continuance of consciousness” (viññāṇassa ṭhitiyā), in other words, how consciousness passes on to a new existence. The causes are said to be the underlying tendencies, namely, ignorance and craving, and “what one intends and plans,” namely, the volitional formations. Once consciousness becomes established, the production of a new existence begins; thus we here proceed directly from consciousness (the usual third factor) to existence (the usual tenth factor). Text IX,4(4)(f) says that from the six internal and external sense bases (the former being the usual fifth factor), consciousness (the third factor) arises, followed by contact, feeling, craving, and all the rest.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6216 “Monks, what one intends and what one plans and whatever one has a tendency toward: this becomes a basis for the continuance of consciousness. When there is a basis there is a support for the establishing of consciousness. When consciousness is established and has come to growth, there is the production of future renewed existence. When there is the production of future renewed existence, future birth, aging-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.49 (Samyutta Nikaya 12:38; II 65–66)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6220 “If, monks, one does not intend and does not plan but still has a tendency toward something, this becomes a basis for the continuance of consciousness. (Samyutta Nikaya 12:38; II 65–66)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5465 These variants make it plain that the sequence of factors should not be regarded as a linear causal process in which each preceding factor gives rise to its successor through the simple exercise of efficient causality. Far from being linear, the relationship among the factors is always complex, involving several interwoven strands of conditionality.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5468 The Four Noble Truths.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5477 Sentient beings roam and wander in saṃsāra because they have not understood and penetrated the Four Noble Truths—Text IX,4(5)(d). As the chain of dependent origination shows, what lies at the base of the causal genesis of suffering is ignorance (avijjā), and ignorance is unawareness of the Four Noble Truths. Thus those who fail to understand the four truths generate volitional formations and fall down the precipice of birth, aging, and death—Text IX,4(5)(e).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5481 The antidote to ignorance is knowledge (vijjā), which accordingly is defined as knowledge of the Four Noble Truths.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6281 “Monks, it is because of not understanding and not penetrating the Four Noble Truths that you and I have roamed and wandered through this long course of saṃsāra. What four? (Samyutta Nikaya 56:24; V 433–34)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6253 “What four? The noble truth of suffering, the noble truth of the origin of suffering, the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering. (Samyutta Nikaya 56:24; V 433–34)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5482 The first penetration of the Four Noble Truths occurs with the attainment of stream-entry, called the breakthrough to the Dhamma (dhammābhisamaya). To make this breakthrough is by no means easy, but without doing so it is impossible to put an end to suffering—Text IX,4(5)(f). Hence the Buddha again and again urges his disciples to “make an extraordinary effort” to achieve the breakthrough to the truths.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5485 Once the disciple makes the breakthrough and sees the Four Noble Truths, more work still lies ahead, for each truth imposes a task that must be fulfilled in order to win the final fruit.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5486 The truth of suffering, which ultimately consists of the five aggregates, must be fully understood (pariññeyya). The truth of its origin, craving, must be abandoned (pahātabba). The truth of cessation, Nibbāna, must be realized (sacchikātabba ). And the truth of the way, the Noble Eightfold Path, must be developed
Highlight(pink) - Location 5489 Developing the path brings to completion all four tasks, at which point one reaches the destruction of the taints. This process begins with penetration of the same Four Noble Truths, and thus Text IX,4(5)(g) says that the destruction of the taints is for those who know and see the Four Noble Truths.

Highlight(pink) - Location 6335 What is Nibbāna?
Highlight(pink) - Location 5496 Nibbāna is still the destruction of lust, hatred, and delusion, but as such it is, among other things, peaceful, deathless, sublime, wonderful, and amazing. Such descriptions indicate that Nibbāna is a state of supreme happiness, peace, and freedom to be experienced in this present life.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6339 “The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of delusion: this, friend, is called Nibbāna. (Samyutta Nikaya 38:1; IV 251–52)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5499 Nibbāna is not simply the destruction of defilements and an exalted feeling of psychological well-being. They speak of Nibbāna almost as if it were a transcendent state or dimension of being. Text IX,5(3) refers to Nibbāna as a “base” (āyatana) beyond the world of common experience where none of the physical elements or even the subtle formless dimensions of experience are present; it is a state completely quiescent, without arising, perishing, or change. Text IX,5(4) calls it the state that is “unborn, unmade, unbecome, and unconditioned” (ajātaṃ, akataṃ, abhūtaṃ, asaṅkhataṃ), the existence of which makes possible deliverance from all that is born, made, come-to-be, and conditioned.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6347 Thirty-Three Synonyms for Nibbāna
Highlight(pink) - Location 6349 “And what, monks, is the unconditioned? The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of delusion: … “And what, monks, is the path leading to the unconditioned? Mindfulness directed to the body: (Samyutta Nikaya 43:1–44, combined; IV 359–73)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6351 “Monks, I will teach you the uninclined … the taintless … the truth … the far shore … the subtle … the very difficult to see … the unaging … the stable … the undisintegrating … the unmanifest … the unproliferated 56 … the peaceful … the deathless … the sublime … the auspicious … the secure … the destruction of craving … the wonderful … the amazing … the unailing … the unailing state … Nibbāna … the unafflicted … dispassion … purity … freedom … nonattachment … the island … the shelter … the asylum … the refuge … the destination and the path leading to the destination.
(Samyutta Nikaya 43:1–44, combined; IV 359–73)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6367 “There is, monks, that base where there is neither earth, nor water, nor heat, nor air; neither the base of the infinity of space, nor the base of the infinity of consciousness, nor the base of nothingness, nor the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception; neither this world nor another world; neither sun nor moon.57 Here, monks, I say there is no coming, no going, no standing still; no passing away and no being reborn. It is not established, not moving, without support. Just this is the end of suffering.” (Ud 8:1; 80)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6376 “There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned. If, monks, there were no unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, no escape would be discerned from what is born, become, made, conditioned. But because there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, therefore an escape is discerned from what is born, become, made, conditioned.”
Highlight(pink) - Location 5507 The way that seems most faithful to both aspects of Nibbāna delineated in the texts is to regard the attainment of Nibbāna as a state of freedom and happiness attained by realizing, with profound wisdom, the unconditioned and transcendent element, the state that is intrinsically tranquil and forever beyond suffering. The penetration of this element brings the destruction of defilements, culminating in complete purification of mind. Such purification is accompanied by the experience of perfect peace and happiness in this present life.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5511 With the breakup of the body at physical death, it brings irreversible release from the beginningless round of rebirths.

Highlight(pink) - Location 5512 two “elements of Nibbāna,”
Highlight(pink) - Location 5512 the Nibbāna element with residue remaining (sa-upādisesa-nibbānadhātu)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5513 and the Nibbāna element without residue remaining (anupādisesa-nibbānadhātu ).
Highlight(pink) - Location 6379 “There are, monks, these two Nibbāna elements. What are the two? The Nibbāna element with residue remaining and the Nibbāna element without residue remaining.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5514 Nibbāna element with residue remaining to be the destruction of lust, hatred, and delusion attained by an arahant while still alive. The “residue” that remains is the composite of the five aggregates that was brought into being by the ignorance and craving of the past life and that must continue on until the end of the lifespan.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6383 However, his five sense faculties remain unimpaired, by which he still experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable, still feels pleasure and pain. It is the destruction of lust, hatred, and delusion in him that is called the Nibbāna element with residue remaining. (Itivuttaka 44; 38)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5516 As to the Nibbāna element without residue remaining, the same text says only that when the arahant passes away, all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here.
Highlight(pink) - Location 6386 For him, here in this very life, all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here. That, monks, is called the Nibbāna element without residue remaining. (Itivuttaka 44; 38)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5517 Since there is no more clinging to the five aggregates, and no more craving for fresh experience through a new set of aggregates, the occurrence of the aggregates comes to an end and cannot continue. The process of the five aggregates is “extinguished” (the literal meaning of Nibbāna).
Highlight(pink) - Location 5520 The Buddha says nothing at all, however, in terms either of existence or nonexistence, about the condition of the arahant after death. It might seem logical to suppose that since the five aggregates that constitute experience completely cease with the attainment of the Nibbāna element without residue, this element must itself be a state of complete nonexistence, a state of nothingness. Yet no text in the Nikāyas ever states this. To the contrary, the Nikāyas consistently refer to Nibbāna by terms that refer to actualities. It is an element (dhātu), a base (āyatana), a reality (dhamma), a state (pada), and so on.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5524 However, though so designated, it is qualified in ways that indicate this state ultimately lies beyond all familiar categories and concepts.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5525 In Text IX,5(6), the wanderer Vacchagotta asks the Buddha whether the Tathāgata—here signifying one who has attained the supreme goal—is reborn (upapajjati) or not after death. The Buddha refuses to concede any of the four alternatives. To say that the Tathāgata is reborn, is not reborn, both is and is not reborn, neither is nor is not reborn—none of these is acceptable, for all accept the term Tathāgata as indicative of a real being, while from an internal point of view a Tathāgata has given up all clinging to notions of a real being. The Buddha illustrates this point with the simile of an extinguished fire. Just as a fire that has been extinguished cannot be said to have gone anywhere but must simply be said to have “gone out,” so with the breakup of the body the Tathāgata does not go anywhere but has simply “gone out.”
Highlight(pink) - Location 6395 “When a monk’s mind is liberated thus, Master Gotama, where is he reborn [after death]?” “‘Is reborn’ does not apply, Vaccha.” “Then he is not reborn, Master Gotama?” “‘Is not reborn’ does not apply, Vaccha.” “Then he both is reborn and is not reborn, Master Gotama?” “‘Both is reborn and is not reborn’ does not apply, Vaccha.” “Then he neither is reborn nor is not reborn, Master Gotama?” “‘Neither is reborn nor is not reborn’ does not apply, Vaccha.” (from Majjhima Nikaya 72: Aggivacchagotta Sutta; I 486–88)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6405 “It is enough to cause you bewilderment, Vaccha, enough to cause you confusion. For this Dhamma, Vaccha, is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. (from Majjhima Nikaya 72: Aggivacchagotta Sutta; I 486–88)
Highlight(pink) - Location 6414 “If someone were to ask you, Vaccha: ‘When that fire before you was extinguished, to which direction did it go: to the east, the west, the north, or the south?’—being asked thus, what would you answer?” “That does not apply, Master Gotama. The fire burned in dependence on its fuel of grass and sticks. When that is used up, if it does not get any more fuel, being without fuel, it is reckoned as extinguished.” (from Majjhima Nikaya 72: Aggivacchagotta Sutta; I 486–88)
Highlight(pink) - Location 5531 The past participle nibbuta, used to describe a fire that has been extinguished, is related to the noun nibbāna, which literally means “extinguishing.”
Highlight(pink) - Location 5533 Yet, if this simile suggests a Buddhist version of the “annihilationist” view of the arahant’s fate after his demise, this impression would rest on a misunderstanding, on a wrong perception of the arahant as a “self” or “person” that is annihilated.
Highlight(pink) - Location 5535 Our problem in understanding the state of the Tathāgata after death is compounded by our difficulty in understanding the state of the Tathāgata even while alive. The simile of the great ocean underscores this difficulty. Since the Tathāgata no longer identifies with the five aggregates that constitute individual identity, he cannot be reckoned in terms of them, whether individually or collectively. Freed from reckoning in terms of the five aggregates, the Tathāgata transcends our understanding. Like the great ocean, he is “deep, immeasurable, and hard to fathom.”7

Highlight - Location 5257 The Discourse on Right View is intended to elucidate the principles that should be comprehended by conceptual right view and penetrated by experiential right view. Sāriputta expounds these principles under sixteen headings: the wholesome and the unwholesome, the four nutriments of life, the Four Noble Truths, the twelve factors of dependent origination, and the taints.
Highlight - Location 5260 It should be noted that from the second section to the end of the sutta, he frames all his expositions in accordance with the same pattern, a pattern that reveals the principle of conditionality to be the scaffolding for the entire teaching. Whatever phenomenon he takes up, he expounds by bringing to light its individual nature, its arising, its cessation, and the way to its cessation. Since this is the pattern that underlies the Four Noble Truths, I shall call it “the four-truth pattern.” This pattern recurs throughout the Nikāyas as one of the major templates through which phenomena are to be viewed to arrive at true wisdom.
Highlight - Location 5264 Its application makes it clear that no entity is isolated and self-enclosed but is, rather, inherently linked to other things in a complex web of dependently originated processes. The key to liberation lies in understanding the causes that sustain this web and bringing them to an end within oneself. This is done by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, the way to extinguish those causes.

Notes

Total: 28

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