This experience of the goal — absolutely unlimited freedom, beyond classification and exclusive of all else — is termed the elemental nibbāna property with no 'fuel' remaining (anupādisesa-nibbāna-dhātu). It is one of two ways in which nibbāna is experienced, the distinction between the two being expressed as follows:
'Monks, there are these two forms of the nibbāna property. Which two? The nibbāna property with fuel remaining, and the nibbāna property with no fuel remaining.
'And what is the nibbāna property with fuel remaining? There is the case where a monk is an arahant whose effluents have ended, who has attained completion, finished the task, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, destroyed the fetter of becoming, and is released through right gnosis. His five faculties still remain and, owing to their being intact, he experiences the pleasing & the displeasing, and is sensitive to pleasure & pain. His ending of passion, aversion, & delusion is termed the nibbāna property with fuel remaining.
'And what is the nibbāna property with no fuel remaining? There is the case where a monk is an arahant... released through right gnosis. For him, all that is sensed, being unrelished, will grow cold right here. This is termed the nibbāna property with no fuel remaining.'
— Iti 44
The phrase referring to the range of feeling as 'growing cold right here' is a set expression describing death as experienced by one who has reached the goal. The verse following this passage states explicitly that this is what is meant here.
These two proclaimed
by the one with vision
nibbāna properties the one independent
the one who is Such:
one property, here in this life
with fuel remaining
from the ending of ,
the guide to becoming
and that with no fuel remaining
after this life
in which becomings
entirely stop.
Those who know this unfabricated state,
their minds released
through the ending of ,
the guide to becoming,
they, attaining the Teaching's core,
delighting in ending,
have abandoned all becomings:
they, the Such.
— Iti 44
The Verses of the Elder Udāyin suggest a simile to illustrate the distinction between these two nibbāna properties:
A great blazing fire
unnourished grows calm
and though its embers exist
is said to be out:
Conveying a meaning,
this image is taught by the cognizant.
Great Nāgas* will recognize
the Nāga as taught by the Nāga
as free from passion,
free from aversion,
free from delusion,
without effluent.
His body discarded, the Nāga
will go totally out
without effluent.
— Thag 15.2
Here Ven. Udāyin compares the nibbāna property with fuel remaining — the state of being absolutely free from passion, aversion, & delusion — to a fire whose flames have died out, but whose embers are still glowing. Although he does not complete the analogy, he seems to imply that the nibbāna property without fuel remaining — when the Worthy One discards his body at death — is like a fire so totally out that its embers have grown cold.
Thus the completely free & unadulterated experience we have been discussing is that of nibbāna after death. There are, though, states of concentration which give a foretaste of this experience in the present life and which enabled the Buddha to say that he taught the goal on the basis of direct knowledge.
Ānanda: 'In what way, venerable sir, might a monk attain concentration of such a form that he would have neither the perception of earth with regard to earth, nor of water with regard to water, nor of fire... wind... the dimension of the infinitude of space... the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness... the dimension of nothingness... the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception... this world... nor of the next world with regard to the next world, and yet he would still be percipient?'
The Buddha: 'There is the case, Ānanda, where he would be percipient of this: "This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishing of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; stopping; nibbāna."'
— AN 10.6
[Ānanda puts the same question to Sāriputta, who responds that he himself once had experienced such a concentration.]
Ānanda: 'But what were you percipient of at that time?'
Sāriputta: '"The stopping of becoming — nibbāna — the stopping of becoming — nibbāna": One perception arose in me as another perception stopped. Just as in a blazing woodchip fire, one flame arises as another flame stops, even so, "The stopping of becoming — nibbāna — the stopping of becoming — nibbāna": One perception arose in me as another one stopped. I was percipient at that time of "the stopping of becoming — nibbāna."'
— AN 10.7
Ānanda: 'It is amazing, my friend, it is marvelous, how the Blessed One has attained & recognized the opportunity for the purification of beings... and the direct realization of nibbāna, where the eye will be, and forms, and yet one will not be sensitive to that dimension; where the ear will be, and sounds... where the nose will be, and aromas... where the tongue will be, and flavors... where the body will be, and tactile sensations, and yet one will not be sensitive to that dimension.'
Udāyin: 'Is one insensitive to that dimension percipient or not percipient?'
Ānanda: '... percipient...'
Udāyin: '... percipient of what?'
Ānanda: 'There is the case where — with the complete transcending of perceptions of form, and the passing away of perceptions of resistance, and not attending to perceptions of diversity — (perceiving,) 'infinite space,' one remains in the dimension of the infinitude of space: Percipient in this way, one is not sensitive to that dimension.
'Further, with the complete transcending of the dimension of the infinitude of space, (perceiving,) 'infinite consciousness,' one remains in the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness: Percipient in this way, one is not sensitive to that dimension.
'Further, with the complete transcending of the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, (perceiving,) 'There is nothing,' one remains in the dimension of nothingness: Percipient in this way, one is not sensitive to that dimension.
'Once, friend, when I was staying in Sāketa at the Game Refuge in the Black Forest, the nun Jaṭilā Bhāgikā went to me and, on arrival — having bowed to me — stood to one side. As she was standing to one side, she said to me: "Ven. Ānanda, the concentration whereby — neither pressed down nor forced back, nor with fabrications kept blocked or suppressed — still as a result of release, contented as a result of stillness, and as a result of contentment one is not agitated: This concentration is said by the Blessed One to be the fruit of what?"'
'I said to her, "...This concentration is said by the Blessed One to be the fruit of gnosis [the knowledge of full Awakening]." Percipient in this way, friend, one is not sensitive to that dimension.'
— AN 9.37
In this extraordinary state of mental poise — neither pressed, forced, blocked, or suppressed — nibbāna in the present life is experienced as freedom from all perception dealing with the six sensory spheres & the dimensions of meditative absorption. Although one is conscious, and these dimensions are present, one does not partake of them.
On the level of ordinary sensory experience, however, nibbāna in the present life is experienced by the Worthy One as the passing away of passion, aversion, & delusion. This implies that these three states are analogous to fire; and as we saw in the Introduction, they are directly referred to as fires at various points in the Canon. On the surface, the notion of passion & aversion as fires hardly requires explanation, but in order to gain a fuller appreciation of the analogies that the Canon draws between fire on the one hand, and passion, aversion, & delusion on the other, we first need some background on the specifically Buddhist views on fire it contains.
At least he's citing AN 9:37 along with AN 10:6 and AN 10:7, implying they're all referring to the same thing. If the bolded bit wasn't there I'd say AN 9:37 could be referring to the 8th jhana though (those are his brackets by the way).
