Commю NT: 18. This discussion falls under three headings: Questions one to four refute the assertion that Nibbāna is mythical and non-existent; questions five to seven refute the assertion that Nibbāna is “mere destruction;” (further argued in the Sammohavinodanī— Vibh-a 51f.) the remaining questions deal with the proof that only Nibbāna (and not the atom, etc.,) is permanent because uncreated. The Paramatthamañjūsā (Vism-mhṭ) covers the subject at great length and reinforces the arguments given here with much syllogistic reasoning. However, only the following paragraph will be quoted here, which is reproduced in the commentaries to Ud 80 and It 37. (The last sentence marked ** appears only in the Udāna Commentary. Readings vary considerably):
Nirodhaniddesakathāvaṇṇanā
‘Dhammas without condition,’ ‘Unformed dhammas’ (see Dhs 2),
‘Bhikkhus, there is that base (sphere) where neither earth … ’ (Ud 80),
‘This state is very hard to see, that is to say, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all substance of becoming’ (D II 36; M I 167),
‘Bhikkhus, I shall teach you the unformed and the way leading to the unformed’ (S IV 362), and so on, and in this sutta, ‘Bhikkhus, there is an unborn …” (It 87; Ud 80) - “Now, in the ultimate sense the existingness of the Nibbāna-element has been demonstrated by the Fully Enlightened One, compassionate for the whole world, by many sutta passages such as [these]. So even if the wise trust completely in the Dispensation and have no doubts, though they may not yet have had direct perception of it,
nevertheless there are persons who come to understand through another’s guidance (reading paraneyya-buddhino); and the intention here is that this logical reasoning under the heading of deduction (niddhāraṇa) should be for the purpose of removing their doubts.
“Just as it is owing to full-understanding (reading yathā pariññeyyatāya) that from the sense desires and from materiality, etc (reading rūpādīnaṃ), that have something beyond them, there is made known an escape [from them] that is their opposite and whose individual essence is devoid of them, so there must exist an escape that is the opposite of, and whose individual essence is devoid of, all formed dhammas, all of which have the aforesaid individual essence (reading evaṃ taṃ-sabhāvānaṃ),
and it is this escape that is the unformed element.
“Besides, insight knowledge, which has formed dhammas as its object, and also conformity knowledge, abandon the defilements with the abandoning consisting in substitution of opposites, being unable to abandon them with the abandoning consisting in cutting off.
Likewise, the kind of knowledge that has conventional truth (sammuti-sacca) [that is, concepts] as its object, in the first jhāna, etc., abandons the defilements only with the abandoning consisting in suppression, not by cutting them off.
So, because the kind of knowledge that has formed dhammas as its object and that which has conventional truth as its object are both incapable of abandoning defilements by cutting them off, there must [consequently] exist an object for the noble-path- knowledge that effects their abandonment by cutting them off, [which object must be] of a kind opposite to both. And it is this that is the unformed element. “
Likewise, the words, ‘Bhikkhus, there is an unborn, an unbecome, an unmade, an unformed’ and so on, which demonstrate the existingness of Nibbāna in the ultimate sense, are not misleading because they are spoken by the Blessed One,
like the words, ‘All formations are impermanent, all formations are painful, all dhammas (states) are not self’ (Dhp 277–79; A I 286, etc.). “ Likewise, in certain instances as regards scope, the word ‘Nibbāna’ has the correct ultimate meaning
for its scope [precisely] because of the existence of its use as a mere metaphor—like the word ‘lion’ (see Ch. XV, note 12, for the word lion).
*Or alternatively, the unformed element exists in the ultimate sense also, because its individual essence is the opposite of, is free from, that of the other kind [of element such as] the earth element and feeling*”
* The discussion is summarized and additional arguments are added in the Abhidhammāvatāra. The later Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha appears to have shelved the problem. It may be noted that in the whole of this discussion (particularly in the answer to Q. 4) no mention is made of the abandoning of the inherent tendencies (anusaya) in the attainment of Nibbāna (see, e.g., MN 64; S II 66). For derivations of the word “Nibbāna” see VIII.247 and note 72.