A Discourse on Paticcasamuppada
by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw | 62,614 words
The Paticcasamuppada refers to “The Doctrine of Dependent Origination”. This is the English translation done by U Aye Maung Published by U Min Swe Buddhasasana Nuggaha Organization Rangoon, Burma....
Those who believe in ego or soul deprecate Nibbana as eternal death of a living being. In reality, it is the total extinction of suffering that results from the non recurrence of psycho physical phenomena together with their causes viz., kamma and defilements. So the Buddha points out the cessation of upadana arising from the complete cessation of craving, the process of becoming (bhava) ceasing to arise due to cessation of upadana and so on. With the non arising of rebirth, there is the complete cessation of old age, death and other kinds of suffering.
Here, the popular view is that birth, old age and death are evils that afflict living beings but, in point of fact, these evils characterize only the psycho physical process and have nothing to do with a living entity. Since there is no ego or soul, it makes no sense to speak of the annihilation of a living being with the cessation of rebirth and suffering.
So those who regard Nibbana as annihilation are not free from the illusion of ego entity. To the intelligent Buddhist, Nibbana means only cessation of suffering. This is evident in the story of bhikkhu Yamaka in the time of the Buddha.