Awakening and Cessation

[Ngawang Drolma.]

Is there a difference between cessation and awakening?
If there is a difference, how could you have cessation of suffering without being awake?

Thank you,
Drolma

[Jechbi]

Maybe the 7 factors of awakening set the stage for nibbana?

[Dhammanando]

Hi Drolma,

Is there a difference between cessation and awakening?

There are some contexts where awakening (bodhi) and cessation (nirodha) are synonymous, and others where they are not.

Bodhi is most frequently defined in the Pali commentaries as “insight knowledge of the four paths” (catumagga-ñāṇa), meaning the paths of stream-entry, once-returning etc.

Nirodha, by contrast, is more of an indexical term, i.e. one whose meaning is variable and needs to be derived from each context in which it occurs (by considering what it is that ceases). The most frequently recurring context is that of the attainment of the path of arahantship, in which case it would indeed be synonymous with one kind of bodhi.

On the other hand, the nirodha in, say, the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling (saññāvedayita-nirodha-samāpatti) is not synonymous with bodhi.

If there is a difference, how could you have cessation of suffering without being awake?

One couldn't have final cessation of suffering without attainment of the path of arahantship, which is the fourth of the four bodhis.

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu

[Ngawang Drolma.]

Thank you Venerable