On Dhp 154 and demolition

Dhp 154 is a famous verse on the “house builder” spoken just after the Buddha’s awakening.

It has some tricky details, particularly the term visaṅkhāra, which hardly appears elsewhere. Here it is part of a verse where it plays into the overall metaphor of “building”, but also has a Dhamma application.

Let’s break down the issues, starting with what is more knowable.

The phrase gahakūṭaṁ visaṅkhataṁ (“your roof-peak is demolished”) follows on from previous lines and is clearly a building term. The “roof-peak” has been unmade, taken apart, or demolished (this latter word being an exact etymological parallel to visaṅkhata).

This suggests that the prefix vi- here is similar to the English dis- or de-, indicating the undoing or taking apart of something, rather than the pure negation, which vi- can convey, but is more precisely a-. It is a past participle, and we can render it directly with the past participle “demolished”.

I’ve checked a few translations, and they all translate visaṅkhāra in the next line as “unconditioned”, i.e. as equivalent to asaṅkhāra. This is problematic, as we do not find asaṅkhāra in this sense elsewhere. The “unconditioned” is always the past participle asaṅkhata.

It’s also poor poetics. Clearly the verse is using a very specific, unique terminology, and visaṅkhata and visaṅkhāra are mere verbal variations. They should be connected in translation as they are in the Pali. But this is completely lost in the translations I’ve seen.

It would seem that such unanimity would derive from the commentary. But that is not the case. Let me briefly translate it.

Gahakūṭaṃ visaṅkhatanti imassa tayā katassa attabhāvagehassa avijjāsaṅkhātaṃ kaṇṇikamaṇḍalampi mayā viddhaṃsitaṃ.
“Your roof-peak is demolished” means this reincarnation that you have made, conditioned by ignorance, including the rooftop has been destroyed by me.

Visaṅkhāragataṃ cittanti idāni mama cittaṃ visaṅkhāraṃ nibbānaṃ ārammaṇakaraṇavasena gataṃ anupaviṭṭhaṃ.
“My mind is set on demolition” means my mind has done to, entered into demolition due to making nibbana the object.

The second explanation is immediately suspect, as it relies on the idea that nibbāna is an “object” (ārammaṇa) or basis. This is a purely commentarial/Abhidhamma idea, not found in the Suttas.

Note too the rather literal sense given to the suffix gata, equated with anupaviṭṭha, “entered into”. It’s widely used in a more abstract way, having arrived at or being in a state.

Now, what the commentary does not do is equate visaṅkhāra with the “unconditioned”. Rather, it is speaking of the meditative experience of enlightenment, which according to its method, involves the mind taking Nibbana the Unconditioned as “object” for the several mind-moments of the path and fruit. This transcendent experience severs the underlying defilements, so that the mind no longer generates a new rebirth.

This is a very deliberate reading by the commentary. Why? Because if the “mind” itself was “unconditioned” it would contradict fundamental Theravada doctrine: only Nibbana is unconditioned, not the mind. Thus it is the experience of the unconditioned in the path and fruit that severs the creation of future lives, but the mind itself is still conditioned (technically, it is conditioned by the ripening of the path factors, which themselves are, of course, conditioned).

Various translations skirt this issue by saying something like “my mind has reached the Unconditioned”. But it seems to me an unnecessary problem if we simply avoid equating visaṅkhāra with asaṅkhāra.

If we return to visaṅkhata, it clearly refers to something that has been made being undone. The noun form visaṅkhāra would then refer to the process of undoing, that is, the mind has become detached from or bereft of the active process of creation.

This clarifies the meaning of visaṅkhāra: it refers to the intentions, the active process of creation, rather than the created things.

Now, at the beginning I said visaṅkhāra hardly appears elsewhere. It seems entirely absent from Sanskrit. There is, however, one passage in late canonical Pali, the Niddesa (Mnd 2:13.6).

Kāyaviveko ca vivekaṭṭhakāyānaṁ nekkhammābhiratānaṁ, cittaviveko ca parisuddhacittānaṁ paramavodānappattānaṁ, upadhiviveko ca nirūpadhīnaṁ puggalānaṁ visaṅkhāragatānaṁ.
Physical seclusion is for those who are physically secluded and delight in renunciation; mental seclusion is for those who have attained paramount purity of mind; seclusion from attachments is for those individuals without attachments who are set on demolition.

Here too, rendering visaṅkhāra as “unconditioned” is a mistake, as it is applied to an “individual”, who is obviously “conditioned” just as the “mind” is in the Dhammapada verse. The point is that such individuals, being without attachments, no longer generate kamma creating rebirth. Notice that, while the wording is different, this contains the exact same ideas as the Dhammapada. The mind/individual is not just visaṅkhāragata, it is free of defilements (upadhi in Mnd, taṇhā in Dhp). These two—the defilements and the actions they prompt—together make up the forces creating a new life.

So it seems the sense is settled. We want something like, “the mind has reached a state where it is bereft of those forces of intention that generate a new life”.

That leaves the hard part, the rendering. We should keep the same term for visaṅkhata and visaṅkhāra, choosing a word that works in both the literal “building” sense as well as the applied sense.

Currently I have:

gahakūṭaṁ visaṅkhataṁ
your roof-peak is demolished.
visaṅkhāragataṁ cittaṁ,
My mind, set on demolition,

Notice the change in pronoun here. The Pali in fact has neither “your” nor “my”. “Your” is justified by the te in the previous line. “My” is from the commentary (mama), but perhaps we should continue the verse as an address to the mind, or simply omit the pronoun by using “the mind”. (A minor point: the last line has “cravings” in plural.)

I’ve seen you, house-builder!
You won’t build a house again!
Your rafters are all broken,
your roof-peak demolished.
The mind, set on demolition,
has reached the end of cravings.

I’m pretty happy with that rendering. It’s a bit obscure, as is the original, but clear enough in context, I think.

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Ah, the subtly of one little word!

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Dear Bhante, :+1:

I rendered it pretty much the same on some of the same bases.

But I would question this:

This is one of those Buddhist terms, nearly unquestioned, that have become common parlance. But does it actually make sense?

In everyday English, ‘unconditioned’ means to have no conditions. For example, unconditional love means love without requiring any reasons to be loved. Nibbāna, however, is not without conditions. It does depend upon something, namely the practice of the eightfold path. In SN35.118 it is even said to depend upon conditions (paccaya).

The translation ‘unconditioned’ has also led some (e.g. Albahari) to conclude that nibbāna is always there, waiting to be discovered. That argument would work if asankhata actually meant unconditioned. But I don’t think the term can carry that.

I think the meaning of asankhata is actually closer to that of visankhata. It means something like ‘the end of what is constructed’ (similar to ajata being the end of what is born rather than some Unborn).

There also seem to be no early texts that require the meaning ‘unconditioned’. But maybe I’m overlooking some. Can you explain why you use ‘unconditioned’?

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I like the analysis but without the explanation this English rendering sounds a bit too vibhava taṇhā to me…

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This is how I too see it. This also reflects how I see the momentum and direction of Dependent Origination and Dependent Cessation. Existence is dependently arisen, and also ceases due to specific conditions. DO goes in the direction of construction of existence and DC goes in the direction de-construction or demolition. This fits for me with regards to all the practices for cessation and Nibbana.. taking demolition of existence as the goal and directing all effort and skilful actions for that ‘dependent de-construction/demolition’.

The Vibhava tanha that Ven @Khemarato.bhikkhu is talking about is only there while Bhava tanha is also there.. and this is dependent upon the degree that self view is still there.

This is certainly very confronting and not for everyone.. There is no way this can be seen as ‘Life affirming’.. (and it resonates with those quotes about ‘die before you die’, and ‘if you meet yourself on the road - kill it’..)
Unless one has truly seen the Four Noble Truths, and has abandoned Self View, then it is very confronting as it goes completely in the opposite direction to most peoples purpose of life.. (which is the construction of a pleasant, happy existence - driven by craving and based on Delusion.) However, when the illusion of Self View (delusion) has been penetrated, then it is just dismantling the house (no annihilation of anyone). Just demolition of the house/suffering.

This translation really gets to the heart of the debates within Buddhism itself.. about ‘what is NIbbana’. This translation makes it very unambiguous.

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has the nice aspect of evoking the “mantle” connotation of gahakūṭaṁ

“your mantle is dismantled”?

:slight_smile:

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asaṅkhata doesn’t occur in the 4 principle Nikayas until SN43, and is confined to that samyutta in SN, SN43.1 gives;

Katamañca, bhikkhave, asaṅkhataṁ?
And what is the unconditioned?

Yo, bhikkhave, rāgakkhayo dosakkhayo mohakkhayo—
The ending of greed, hate, and delusion.

idaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, asaṅkhataṁ.
This is called the unconditioned.

Katamo ca, bhikkhave, asaṅkhatagāmimaggo?
And what is the path that leads to the unconditioned?

Kāyagatāsati.
Mindfulness of the body.

Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, asaṅkhatagāmimaggo.
This is called the path that leads to the unconditioned.

The remainder of the chapter merely permutes the same definition for other Buddhist practices.
The next chapter gives Anatañca as effectively a synonym, and the last chapter gives Parāyanañca.

it occurs once more in the principle Nikayas, at AN3.47 which gives;

“Tīṇimāni, bhikkhave, asaṅkhatassa asaṅkhatalakkhaṇāni.
“The unconditioned has these three characteristics.

Katamāni tīṇi?
What three?

Na uppādo paññāyati, na vayo paññāyati, na ṭhitassa aññathattaṁ paññāyati.
No arising is evident, no vanishing is evident, and no change while persisting is evident.

Imāni kho, bhikkhave, tīṇi asaṅkhatassa asaṅkhatalakkhaṇānī”ti.
These are the three characteristics of the unconditioned.”

SN43 has no known parallels.

AN3.47 has a parallel at EA22.5 and guess what?

EA22.5 reproduces the first half, about “the conditioned” but has no mention of the second half, the “unconditioned”.

The term outside the 4 principle Nikayas occurs in the famous Ud8.3

“Atthi, bhikkhave, ajātaṁ abhūtaṁ akataṁ asaṅkhataṁ.
“There is, mendicants, that which is free of rebirth, free of what has been produced, made, and conditioned.

No cetaṁ, bhikkhave, abhavissa ajātaṁ abhūtaṁ akataṁ asaṅkhataṁ, nayidha jātassa bhūtassa katassa saṅkhatassa nissaraṇaṁ paññāyetha.
If there were nothing free of rebirth, free of what has been produced, made, and conditioned, then you would find no escape here from rebirth, from what has been produced, made, and conditioned.

Yasmā ca kho, bhikkhave, atthi ajātaṁ abhūtaṁ akataṁ asaṅkhataṁ, tasmā jātassa bhūtassa katassa saṅkhatassa nissaraṇaṁ paññāyatī”ti.
But since there is that which is free of rebirth, free of what has been produced, made, and conditioned, an escape is found from rebirth, from what has been produced, made, and conditioned.”

A careful examination of the parallels to this sutta is enormously rewarding.

anyway, counting, collecting, preparing, compounding, putting together, construcintg, confecting, the semantic range of saṅkh is pretty clear, and the appearance of the technical term asaṅkhataṁ appears to be something that happens at the very end of the presectarian period.

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I like “demolition”, but I agree with Ven. Sunyo that “unconditioned” for asaṅkhata is potentially problematic. Yet I don’t quite agree with Ven. Sunyo either.

But even unconditional love is only unconditional in one particular respect, namely, that the qualities of the object are irrelevant for one’s expression of love. For even unconditional love is conditioned in the sense that it takes a certain practice to get there, just like Nibbāna. Nibbāna too can be said to be unconditioned in a certain sense, namely that once it is achieved it does not rely on conditions for it’s perpetuation. That is, Nibbāna is irreversible.

In fact, its irreversibility is one of the characteristics that makes Nibbāna different from all phenomena. All phenomena are supported by conditions, whereas Nibbāna is not. It is in this sense, then, that Nibbāna can be described as unconditioned.

My problem with the word “unconditioned” is that makes Nibbāna sound too “thingy”. It suffers from the same problem as the rendering “deathless” for amata. Just as amata means “freedom from death” - a rendering that is contextually required in certain passages, such as MN 26 - so does asaṅkhata mean “freedom from the conditioned”, and should in my view be rendered as such.

In fact, I believe the rendering “freedom from the conditioned” points to a deeper meaning of asaṅkhata. It seems natural to relate it to the expression sabbe saṅkhārā samatha, “the stilling of all phenomena”, which is a description on Nibbāna. This description may refer to two things: (1) the stilling of constructive saṅkhāras upon becoming an arahant, or (2) the stilling of all phenomena upon parinibbāna.

In the former case, you are free from the conditioned in the sense that you have no more craving for conditioned phenomena. Conditioned phenomena have no more pull on your mind. In the latter case, you are entirely free from conditioned phenomena in the sense that they cease altogether. Even the disturbance of the six senses that remains for an arahant is now gone.

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The normal understanding is that Nibbana itself is unconditioned, but the realization of Nibbana is dependent on the path.

Ahh, I remember sitting at Wat Nanachat listening to a talk by Ajahn Sumedho, and he says, “when you’re just aware and the mind is open, that’s unconditioned isn’t it?” and I’m silently screaming “noooooo!”

Yeah, the dictionary doesn’t really support the Buddhist sense:

So if we were to use something like “freedom from the conditioned”, looking at the main Sutta contexts, we would have :

  • The unconditioned has these three characteristics → Freedom from the conditioned has these three characteristics
  • Fading away is said to be the best of all things whether conditioned or free of the conditioned
  • Those who have fully understood the state free of conditions
  • what is the path that leads to freedom from the conditioned

? It also occurs at AN 5.32, AN 4.34, DN 34, Iti 43, Thag 9.1, Ud 8.3, MN 115, MN 44 …

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Oh! your completly right… my tools are broken :confused:

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OK, here I go again :slight_smile:

visaṅkh does not occur in the 4 principle Nikayas, the Vinaya, or the Abhidhamma.
It does occur in the Nidessa, the Visidhumagga, the Aṭṭhakathā, and the Ṭīka.

The verse as a whole is not paralleld in Patna or the Gāndhārī Dhammpadas, and in the Udānavarga it is appended to the Cittavarga not the Jarāvagga.

The verse has a partial parallel at Thag2.32 that does not contain the term.

gahak does not occur in the 4 principle Nikayas, the Vinaya, or the Abhidhamma, again occuring only at Dhp154 and Thag2.32

khayamajjh does not occur in the 4 principle Nikayas, the Vinaya, or the Abhidhamma, occuring only at Dhp154 and the Aṭṭhakathā.

So anyway, assuming Digital Pali Reader is working on my laptop again, which I think it is, I think that this verse is likely late, and may be using vi to distinguish from a precisely because of the reification of asaṅkh.

asaṅkh is as @sujato patiently pointed out, somewhat more widespread than I claimed, however, it’s occurance in DN33 isn’t paralleled in DA9, it’s occurance in DN34 isn’t paralleled in DA10.

Slightly off-topic (but it sets up my post), Ajahn Brahmali explored the meaning of paccaya in this essay.

I commented on the etymology of the word “condition” as noted in the American Heritage dictionary, which Miriam Webster seems to confirm. The word derives:

How the English and related languages evolved to its use as a verb is less clear. Regardless, that’s how we end up with the adjective “conditioned” (from the past participle) – as in something is conditioned although we can also say one thing conditions another.

An example from the Cambridge English Language Corpus:

All probabilities are appropriately conditioned on the observed data, and users can find any probabilities of interest.

Also from the Cambridge Dictionary:

trained or influenced mentally so that you do or expect a particular thing without thinking about it

Here’s an example they offer:

If a bear is very conditioned to raiding dustbins, you can yell and bang pots as much as you like and it won’t scare it away.

Which is another way of saying If a bear keeps experiencing the delight of raiding dustbins, it will keep raiding dustbins no matter what you do.

In light of Ajahn Brahmali’s comment here:

For our bear, this would mean:

If a bear is free from this experience of delight every time it raids a dustbin, it will stop raiding dustbins.

This makes more sense to me than “unconditioned” when reading asaṅkhata. Is there any other context outside of the Pali canon where we have a sense of “unconditioned”? It is grammatically correct but not intuitively clear?

However in reading visaṅkhāra in Dhp 154, I see Bhahte Sujato’s point. I note the French translator Fernand Hû chooses a similar concept to demolition:

En même temps qu’à la désagrégation définitive, ma pensée est arrivée à la totale extinction du désir.

that is, according to LaRousse Dictionary la désagrégation =

Séparation des parties qui composent un tout

or the separation of a whole into its parts. Which is wholly different than what our bear is experiencing.

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To nerd out on our favourite words just for the sport of it:

I’m sure you’d realise but, dés-agrégation, dis-aggregating, aggregates… Hmm? :smiley:

Also, it sounds similar enough to Dis-integrate, and conveniently, I think sankhara fits nicely to integration. So, Disintegration could be a cool (if rather Heavy Metal band-name sounding) translation for visaṅkhāra.

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Hi Ajahns :pray:

This is not what “unconditioned” in English seems to mean to me.

And is this what asankhata is actually meant to convey, or is it trying to make a certain translation of it work? You explain it differently as well:

“Freedom from the conditioned” does not mean the same as “does not rely on conditions for it’s perpetuation”.

Ah, yes, we find that explanation in some commentarial works, like the Milindapanha, I believe. It compares nibbana to a mountain or city, which is already there before you reach it.

In my view, it doesn’t really work, however. In the early texts nibbana is explained as the cessation of the defilements. This is not something that already pre-exists, in an unconditioned form. (Similar for parinibbana as the cessation of existence.)

AN6.57 interestingly also says nibbana is generated or “given rise to”, abhijāyati. (“Someone born into a bright class gives rise to extinguishment.”)

That would be my main issue.

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This feels promising to me. If we return to the Bhante’s solution:

We are talking about the house-builder, who is referred to in the preceding sutta Dhp 153.

Transmigrating through countless rebirths,
I’ve journeyed without reward,
searching for the house-builder;
painful is birth again and again.

We’ve established that the house-builder stands for:

those forces of intention that generate a new life

Dhp 154 immediately pivots to the house-builder as the one seen.

I’ve seen you, house-builder!
You won’t build a house again!
Your rafters are all broken,
your roof-peak is demolished.
My mind, set on demolition,
has reached the end of craving.

Curiously, the house that won’t be built again is a peaked-roof house.

When researching this, I find scarce mention of peaked roofs in the pāli canon except for the oft-mentioned:

near Vesālī, at the Great Wood, in the hall with the peaked roof

as well as in, for example, AN 8.30:

When you reflect upon these eight thoughts of a great person and gain at will … these four jhānas … then, while you dwell contentedly, your dwelling place at the foot of a tree will seem to you as a house with a peaked roof, plastered inside and out, draft-free, with bolts fastened and shutters closed, seems to a householder or a householder’s son; and it will serve for your delight, relief, and ease, and for entering upon nibbāna.

It is likely the peaked-roof house is constructed so that the stability of the house depends on the tension at the peak. If the peak is “disassembled” the entire structure would, presumably, collapse. To your observation @Dogen.

(Also likely that this kind of construction was out-of-reach for most people.)

For me, it naturally follows that use of the demolished (or dis-assembling) peaked roof is maintained for both

Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā,
gahakūṭaṁ visaṅkhataṁ;

where the image is re-inforced with the collapsing beams and

Visaṅkhāragataṁ cittaṁ,
taṇhānaṁ khayamajjhagā.

where the mind is demolished (or – may I offer – collapsed :face_with_monocle:). Here, isn’t the mind not set on demolition representing

those forces of intention that generate a new life

Whereas the mind set on demolition

has reached the end of craving.

Versus:

All your rafters are broken,
the roof-peak dismantled.
The mind has gone to the unconditioned

So the mind set on dismantling those forces of intention that generate new life does not convey the unconditioned mind. This from a purely syntactic review.

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Well, this is no doubt a big part of the problem: “unconditioned” is not a very clearly defined word for most people. OED online gives three definitions, of which the first one is close in meaning to my suggestion:

not subject to conditions or to an antecedent condition; unconditional.

I would say that the two can be read as meaning the same. Being free from conditions (which is equivalent to “freedom from the conditioned”, but perhaps clearer) can mean that you exist or remain independently of external influences. Once Nibbāna has been achieved, the ending of the defilements is not “subject to conditions”, that is, it is irreversible.

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Thanks everyone for the contributions!

As for translating “unconditioned”, I do feel like the word can bear the Buddhist sense, but the question for me is whether we should prefer a less, shall we say, ontologically susceptible rendering, following the analogy of “free of rebirth” or “free of death”. In fact I already use such a rendering for the ajātaṁ abhūtaṁ asaṅkhataṁ passage.

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I think that would be great! The problem is that “the unconditioned” is already being used to convey that nibbāna is some sort of existing reality. Eckhart Tolle, for instance, has a talk titled “discovering the unconditioned”, which for him is a “dimension of consciousness”. Similar ideas are rife in Buddhist circles. It would be good if your translation could not be taken as supporting such ideas. And of course, a note to explain would be very helpful.

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Dear Venerables and others,

perhaps you can help me better understand the terms (a)sankhata and ‘(un)conditioned’. Because I still think I understand these differently. :pray:

This passage at Ud8.3 & Iti43 indicates that whatever is sankhata is also born, dependently arisen, etc., and hence is impermanent. If we translate the term as ‘conditioned’, I still believe this would include nibbana as well, since nibbana depends on the development of the path. So it is conditioned.

Ajahn Brahmali replied it is indeed conditioned in a limited sense, but it is no longer conditioned after it is attained. However, we also don’t say that nibbana is born and arisen in a limited sense, yet no longer born and arisen after it is attained. So while in Pali the terms in this passage are near-synonyms, in English it seems they are not, when sankhata is translated as ‘conditioned’.

In Snp1.2 the term susaṅkhatā is used in a daily-life context, describing a raft that is well-constructed. In AN4.57 the same term describes a well-made meal. In Snp4.3 saṅkhata is used for a teaching someone has “created”. We don’t say such things are conditioned. So I fail to see good reasons why this is the preferred translation of sankhata when the context is rebirth and its ending. This translation doesn’t seem to be required by any passages I’m aware of. Translations like ‘constructed’, ‘fabricated’, or ‘created’ work just as well or better, and they don’t have the drawback of implying that nibbāna is some unconditioned existent. (Which ‘conditioned’ can imply regardless of how we translate asankhata.) These alternative translations may earn less style points, but I think they are more accurate as to the meaning. :upside_down_face:

The passage at Ud8.3 & Iti43 also indicates that a-sankhata refers to the escape from all that is sankhata. The accompanying verse at Iti43 explains asankhata as saṅkhārūpasamo, the stilling/subsiding of creations/constructions (conditions??). So asankhata refers to the ending of things, to the things that no longer exist after extinguishment. It is not a descriptor of nibbāna itself; i.e. it doesn’t mean that nibbāna is unconditioned after it is reached.

Compare also Dhp383: Knowing the ending (khayaṁ) of sankhāras, one knows the akata. (Sankhārānaṁ khayaṁ ñatvā, akataññūsi brāhmaṇa). Here akata (freedom from what is made) also seems to be a synonym for asankhata. Etymologically, they are of course also nearly identical.

To get back to the initial topic, I think the Dhammapada verses also support these ideas. Once a house is demolished/deconstructed (visankhata), we don’t describe it as “unconstructed” or even “no longer constructed”. Also, in these verses the idea is again constructing/creating rebirths—not conditioning them, which is a different idea:

However, we can say that once we deconstruct (visankhata) the constructed (sankhata), it is the end of what is constructed (asankhata).

As K.R. Norman also concludes in A Philological Approach to Buddhism: “It [nibbāna] is […] ‘without made things’ (akata) and ‘without formed things’ (asaṅkhata).”

So to me the problem is not just that people may reify the translation ‘unconditioned’. It’s about what this word actually means. By analogy, I don’t have a problem with ‘deathless’ for amata, since it literally means without death. If people reify that term into some deathless entity, that is not based on the meaning of word itself but on views. With ‘unconditioned’ (or even ‘free from conditioned’) the situation doesn’t seem the same. This does imply things that the Pali asankhata does not, at least it does so to me.

But maybe I’m overlooking some passages or misunderstanding certain terms?

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Edit: Reply to Bhante Sunyo regarding Unconditioned is moved to here:

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