When this was said, the monk said to the Blessed One: “Venerable sir, it is said, ‘the Deathless, the Deathless.’ What now, venerable sir, is the Deathless? What is the path leading to the Deathless?”
“The destruction of lust, the destruction of hatred, the destruction of delusion: this is called the deathless
Commentary:
“What is the amatadhamma?”
AMATA MEANS “DEATHLESS”; the amatadhamma is the dhamma (thing or state) that does not die. And what is that? The Buddha once said, “The cessation of greed, hatred, and delusion is the amata-dhamma. “The amatadhamma is the immortal state, or the immortalizing state. Wherever there is greed, hatred, and delusion, that is called the mortal state.
One experiences suffering. One has the self-idea, which causes one to be subject to birth, aging, disease, and death. When greed, hatred, and delusion cease (the ceasing of delusion being the ceasing of ignorance and misunderstanding), then there no longer arises the false concept of selfhood, then there is no more self to die. So if one is searching for the deathless state, the amatadhamma, one must search for the state or condition that is free of greed, hatred, and delusion. This is what the Buddha taught. The amatadhamma, as we have so frequently heard, is the ultimate, the highest teaching of Buddhism. The “undying” taught by other teachers is a different amata. But in Buddhism it is, as I have just explained, the cessation of greed, hatred, and delusion.
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