Part 25 - Unbinding: The End of Fuel and Fire
“Craving is the fuel…
when the fuel is ended, the fire goes out.”
— SN 12.52
What was burning?
Suffering is a fire, fueled by:
- craving
- clinging
- becoming
The self was the flame:
- fragile
- hot
- consuming
When craving ends:
the fire has nothing left to burn.
Flame goes out.
Heat disappears.
Stillness remains.
This is Nibbāna.
What was tangled?
Identity was a knot:
- threads of perception
- threads of feeling
- threads of protection
All tied together by Ignorance saying:
“This must be me.”
When the knot is not reinforced:
- the loop loosens
- the strands separate
- the tension releases
There is no knot to untie.
This is Nibbāna.
Nothing is lost — the burden is removed
People ask:
“What happens to me when I awaken?”
The answer:
The burden you carried
is put down.
- Awareness remains
- Wisdom remains
- Compassion remains
- Life remains
What disappears:
- the fiction that twisted all of it into suffering
Freedom is not a gain —
it is a release.
Why ‘Unbinding’ is the perfect term
Because:
- the fire unbinds from its fuel
- the knot unbinds from its tension
- the self unbinds from identity
- the mind unbinds from delusion
Nothing clings.
Nothing collapses.
Everything rests.
The felt sense of unbinding
It feels like:
- coolness where heat once burned
- openness where fear once closed
- silence where noise once demanded
- endlessness where time once pressed
This peace is not passive —
it is fully awake.
Culmination Link for Part 25
Unbinding is:
- the end of suffering
- the freedom from fabrication
- the resolution of the chain
It proves:
Suffering was never necessary.
It was always dependent.
Remove the cause — and it ends.
Dependent Origination is complete:
- both in arising
- and in cessation
This is the unbinding
the Buddha realized.