[Teeppoodiug]

Your piece also talks about the pain and grief elements. In other words the word 'element' doesn't say much on its own.

'Element' refers to impersonal natural phenomena, which comprise of life. Life is elements, such as physical things are comprised of earth, wind, fire & water elements; and mind is comprised of various mental elements.

The unconditioned is just the natural state of affairs without the illusions of the conditioned. The conditioned, imo, is the state free from greed, hatred & delusion. For example, imo, the unconditioned is not the natural state of affairs of say animals & insects mating due the mating season. This natural state of affairs is certainly conditioned, imo.

The conditioned idea that stuff has inherent existence, namely independence, in the form of 'Self' or another entity like a conventional self Your point here is not really relevent because the notion of "independence" does not necessarily infer a "Self". This is another fallacy of Nargajunian thought, where any kind of intrinsicness is regarded as an "Entity". The constant unceasing permanent flow of impermanence is not an "entity". It is not a "Self" or a "Person". The permanent Nibbana is the same. It is not an "Entity", "Self" or "Person".

The Theravadan notion of "sabhava" does not infer an "Entity". When we take up some earth element (soil) in our fingers & crumble it, the element of earth here does not lose its sense of earthiness. This is the meaning of sabhava. It is not an "Entity". This is contrary to say the physical body of a human being when it decomposes into dust (earth element). The sense of "Entity" is completely lost. A living human body has no sense of sabhava (instrinsicness) but earth element crumbled between the fingers to more & more smaller particles retains its sense of sabhava.

None of this is personal. None of it is a 'self'. 'Self' is a thought construction of the human mind, born of ignorance.

The conditioned does not affect the unconditioned because the unconditioned is just the natural normal healthy state of everyday life without the perversions of the conditioned. The body gets older, things still change, the wind blows, the rain falls, the seasons come and go The unconditioned is the state of non-attachment. Conditioned (mental & physical) phenomena come & go but there is no attachment in the mind to the coming & going. This is the unconditioned, i.e., the absence of attachment.

but the pain of the conditioned is gone What pain? Many conditioned things are not subject to pain.

and there is no-one that will be born again because there was in the first place no one that was born. Yes, no "Entity" was ever born but there were Elements born.

The only thing that was born was the ILLUSION of SELF. No. The 10,000 elements are constantly born, transforming, decaying, etc. The ILLUSION of SELF is a certain kind of birth but not the only kind of birth.

Emptiness of conditioned phenomenon is required including the conditioned phenomenon of Nirvana. Unconditioned Nirvana is just the natural non-dualistic empty truth. Nirvana is not a conditioned phenomenon. Your opinion here does not accord with Buddha. Buddha defined Nirvana as the end of greed, hatred & delusion. But all other things, such as the five aggregates, are conditioned phenomena. Buddha had five aggregates but his five aggregates were free from greed, hatred & delusion, thus his mind experience Nirvana.

All the best