Nibbāna 36—The Death of Death
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2021-06-17

This series is classified Vivartha-vāda | Rāja-yoga | Ājñā-cakra | Nibbāna

“Unto them that stand midstream, 
When the frightful floods flow forth, 
To them in decay-and-death forlorn, 
An island, Kappa, I shall proclaim. 
Owning naught, grasping naught, 
The isle is this, none else besides. 
Nibbāna, that is how I call that isle, 
Where decay is decayed and death is dead.” 
—Kappamāṇavapucchā (SN 5.11) https://suttacentral.net/snp5.11/pli/ms

“This being, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises; this not being, that does not come to be. With the cessation of this, that ceases. 

“And that is to say, dependent on ignorance, fabrications come to be; 
dependent on fabrications, consciousness; 
dependent on consciousness, name-and-form; 
dependent on name-and-form, the six sense-bases; 
dependent on the six sense-bases, contact; 
dependent on contact, feeling; 
dependent on feeling, craving; 
dependent on craving, grasping; 
dependent on grasping, becoming; 
dependent on becoming, birth; 
dependent on birth, decay-and-death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair come to be. 
Thus is the arising of this entire mass of suffering.

Let's trace suffering back through the chain of causation:
Suffering and rebirth depend on aging-and-death. 
Aging-and-death depends on birth; 
birth depends on becoming. 
Becoming depends on clinging; 
clinging depends on craving. 
Craving depends on feelings; 
feelings depend on contact. 
Contact depends on the six senses; 
the six senses depend on name-and-form. 
Name-and-form depends on [conditioned] consciousness; 
consciousness depends on saṅkhāra (fabrications). 
Fabrications depend on ignorance; 
ignorance is primordial, causeless and inexplicable. It’s just the play of Māyā.

But when ignorance ceases and fades away by hearing from an Enlightened One, conviction and confidence in the Teaching arises. 
With the cessation of ignorance, cessation of fabrications.
With the fading away of fabrications, contentment arises. 
With the cessation of fabrications, cessation of conditioned consciousness. 
With the fading away of conditioned consciousness, rapture arises.
With the cessation of consciousness, cessation of name-and-form.
With the fading away of name-and-form, serenity arises.
With the cessation of name-and-form, cessation of six sense bases.
With the fading away of the six sense bases, bliss arises.
With the cessation of six sense bases, cessation of contact.
With the fading away of contact, samādhi arises.
With the cessation of contact, cessation of feelings.
With the fading away of feelings, the Dhamma Eye arises (First Path).
With the cessation of feelings, cessation of craving.
With the fading away of craving, disenchantment arises.
With the cessation of craving, cessation of clinging.
With the fading away of clinging, dispassion arises (Second Path). 
With the cessation of clinging, cessation of becoming.
With the fading away of becoming, release arises. (Third Path)
With the cessation of becoming, cessation of [re]birth.
With the fading away of birth, cessation [of rebirth] arises.
With the cessation of [re]birth, cessation of aging-and-death.
With the fading away of aging-and-death, Nibbāna arises (Fourth Path).

Thus is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering.

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