↑ Below are some excerpts from the Pali Canon indicative of the statement that clinging's cessation leads to Nirvana:"For the sake of what, then, my friend, is the holy life lived under the Blessed One?""The holy life is lived under the Blessed One, my friend, for the sake of total Unbinding [nibbana] through lack of clinging."— from "Relay Chariots" (Ratha-vinita Sutta MN 24) (Thanissaro, 1999)."Bhikkhus, when ignorance is abandoned and true knowledge has arisen in a bhikkhu, then with the fading away of ignorance and the arising of true knowledge he no longer clings to sensual pleasures, no longer clings to views, no longer clings to rules and observances, no longer clings to a doctrine of self. When he does not cling, he is not agitated. When he is not agitated, he personally attains Nibbana. He understands: 'Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'"— from "The Shorter Discourse on the Lion's Roar" (Cula-sihanada Sutta MN 11) (Ñanamoli & Bodhi, 1993)."Now during this utterance, the hearts of the bhikkhus of the group of five were liberated from taints through clinging no more."— from "The Discourse on the Not-self Characteristic" (Anatta-lakkhana SuttaSN 22.59) (Ñāṇamoli, 1981)."...From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging, illness & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering & stress."— from "Clinging" (Upadana Sutta SN 12.52) (Thanissaro, 1998b)."And having drunk"The medicine of the Dhamma,"You'll be untouched by age and death."Having meditated and seen —"(You'll be) healed by ceasing to cling."— from "The Healing Medicine of the Dhamma" (Miln 5 [verse 335]) (Olendzki, 2005).
↑ Examples of references to upādanā in the Sutta Pitaka can be found in the "Culasihanada Sutta" ("Shorter Discourse on the Lion's Roar", MN 11) (see Nanamoli & Bodhi, 2001, p. 161) and the "Nidanasamyutta" ("Connected Discourses on Causation", SN 12) (see Bodhi, 2000b, p. 535).
↑ In the Abhidhamma, the Dhammasangani §§ 1213-17 (Rhys Davids, 1900, pp. 323-5) contains definitions of the four types of clinging.
↑ Abhidhamma commentaries related to the four types of clining can be found, for example, in the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (see Bodhi, 2000b, p. 726 n. 5) and the Visuddhimagga (Buddhaghosa, 1999, pp. 585-7).
↑ It is worth noting that, in reference to "wrong view" (Pali: miccha ditthi) as used in various suttas in the Anguttara Nikaya's first chapter, Bodhi (2005), p. 437, n. 10, states that wrong views "deny the foundations of morality, especially those views that reject a principal of moral causation or the efficacy of volitional effort."
↑ See, for instance, Buddhaghosa (1999), p. 587. For a reference to these particular ascetic practices in the Sutta Pitaka, see MN 57, Kukkuravatika Sutta ("The Dog-Duty Ascetic," translated in: Nanamoli & Khantipalo, 1993; and, Nanamoli & Bodhi, 2001, pp. 493-97).
