Question: It is often said that Nibbana is unconditioned. But isn't Nibbana to be attained through practice of the Noble Eightfold Path (abandoning desire, meditation, realizing paticcasamuppada etc)? Aren't those practices conditions for Nibbana? What am I missing here :) ?

Answer: 
The practice of the eightfold noble path leads to the *experience* of nibbāna, just like the act of adverting the mind to the eye door leads to seeing light. Light, the object of seeing, is saṅkhata (conditioned), but nibbāna, the object of supermundane consciousness, is asaṅkhata (unconditioned). So nibbāna isn't the result of the eightfold noble path, the experience of it is.
Nibbana as stated in the [Patthana](http://wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/patthana-dhamma/d/doc1829.html) with my summary below:

* `[]` square brackets indicate my extra notes
* `*` asterisk indicates I've changed to the English rendering according to Nyanamoli as it appeals to me to be a closer rendering, otherwise it is straight from the Patthana.

> 
> Nibbana the term derives from nivana or nirvana. Ni means nikkhanta or liberated from vana or binding. Vana is the dhamma that bind various different lives in the samsara. So nibbana means liberated from binding in the samsara. This binding is tanha. [Thanissaro Bhikkhu uses unbinding in most of his translation instead of using nibbana]
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> From view point of contemplation [at the time of release], there are three kinds of nibbana.
> They are sunnata nibbana [\*emptiness - attained thru seeing anatta],
> animitta nibbana [\*signless - attained thru seeing anicca],
> and appanihita nibbana [\*desireless - attained thru seeing dukkha]
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All 3 are just one same nibbana perceived through different modes of release.

Nibbana is not in one of the 5 aggregates, [it is there all the time but we don't have the mental capacity to see it]. It can be an object of the mind (arammana).

Who can see nibbana? Arahants, and Anagamis only when he enters (\*the state of ceasation of consciousness) nirodha samapatti.

[Sotapanas, Sakadagamis and Anagamis only have a glimps of nibbana]

> 
> Sankhata dhatu [\*conditioned elements] are those whose arising and existence are influenced by one of four causes namely kamma [\*action], citta [\*consciousness], utu [\*climate], and ahara [\*nutriment]. Nibbana cannot be influenced by these four causes. Nibbana is asankhata dhatu [\*unconditioned element].
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