[Agehoobionibe]

Hi everyone,

I have undertaken to again revisit Nibanna and what it means.

In the past, I've had numerous discussions with Atheists who supposedly possessed an understanding about this matter, only to find out they did not cite any source material at all (i.e. Suttas, Abhidamma or commentaries).

So, In the Ittivutaka, the Buddha mentions "The Unborn", here it is:

"There exists, monks, that which is unborn, that which is unbecome, that which is uncreated, that which is unconditioned."

The Buddha goes on to say that essentially this is the goal of meditation and of course sila, panna, etc.

Now, My understanding is that in Theravada and in the pre "18 schools period" the 4 brahmaviharas are mentioned as meditations, metta-bhavana, the kasinas and jhanas are mentioned also. However, the Buddha mentoned Vipassana as the meditation of release from Samsara, I believe.

If Vipassana is the meditation of release from Samsara, how do the rest of the meditational "topics" per se meet with that towards a Nibbana goal?

Sorry for the verboseness but I really see no other way of expressing this!

Thank you,
Stefos