What is "the deathless"?

[Spiny Norman]

.to the extent that the deathless is facilitated by non-birth then it should be understood that we are born of our actions.....

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. Dependent origination says that cessation of birth means cessation of death, with birth and death being described in straightforward physical terms.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings,

......so, I guess that absence of intention (aka "kamma") is pretty directly related to the deathless.....

Yes. Or more specifically, sankharas.

Metta,
Retro.

[xabir]

Buddha: "And what, monks, is the death-free (amata)? The elimination of passion, the elimination of aggression, the elimination of delusion: this is called the death-free." - SN 43 Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta

tiltbillings: "There is no "deathless." That is a bad translation leading to an objectification/reification of the idea of awakening. With awakening, there is no more rebirth, one is free from death. (31 words.)""

Nana/Geoff: "One has to be careful with such descriptions which may seem to be pointing to some sort of truly existent "unconditioned ground." Nibbāna is the extinguishment of the mental outflows (āsavā). The liberated mind is measureless (appamāṇa). This is not a "state of oneness with all of existence." It's an absence of identification (anattatā). It's non-indicative (anidassana), unestablished (appatiṭṭha), and not-dependent (anissita). None of these adjectives entail any sort of metaphysical "ground of being" or "unconditioned absolute." They are all negations. An arahant has simply "gone out."

Nana/Geoff: "“Firstly, while the translation of asaṃskṛta as “the unconditioned” is fairly common, it’s a rather poor translation that all too easily leads to reification. The term asaṃskṛta refers to a negation of conditioned factors, and the meaning is better conveyed by “not-conditioned.” Secondly, for Sautrāntika commentators, and many mahāyānika commentators as well, an analytical cessation (pratisaṃkhyānirodha) is a non-implicative negation (prasajyapratiṣedha), i.e. a negation that doesn’t imply the presence of some other entity, and therefore nirvāṇa simply refers to a cessation that terminates the defilements and fetters that are abandoned by the correct practice of the noble path. It doesn’t refer to an entity or state that is substantially existent (dravyasat).” "

[chownah]

.to the extent that the deathless is facilitated by non-birth then it should be understood that we are born of our actions.....

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here. Dependent origination says that cessation of birth means cessation of death, with birth and death being described in straightforward physical terms.

I'm just pointing out that to understand the deathless it may be helpful to look at birth because cessation of birth is the "precursor" of the deathless....and it seems that the Buddha taught that we are born of our actions so understanding our actions will help in understanding our birth....and it seems that the Buddha taught that as we intend so do we act so to understand our actions we might do well to understand our intentions.....Putting this in order it looks like
Intention(kamma) leads to action
Action(also often called kamma) leads to birth
Birth leads to death.....NOT the deathless.

Seems that intention makes the difference between death and deathless I guess but don't know for sure.....
chownah