MN 38: How do aging-&-death cease when the eye sees a form? MN 38 has the following two different or opposite verses on the arising of suffering &amp; the ceasing of suffering: 


  On seeing a form with the eye, he lusts after it if it is pleasing; he dislikes it if it is unpleasing. He abides with mindfulness of the
  body unestablished, with a limited mind, and he does not understand as
  it actually is the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom
  wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder. Engaged
  as he is in favouring and opposing, whatever feeling he feels—whether
  pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—he delights in
  that feeling, welcomes it, and remains holding to it. As he does so,
  delight arises in him. Now delight in feelings is clinging. With his
  clinging as condition, being comes to be; with being as condition,
  birth; with birth as condition, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation,
  pain, grief, and despair come to be. Such is the origin of this whole
  mass of suffering.
  
  On seeing a form with the eye, he does not lust after it if it is pleasing; he does not dislike it if it is unpleasing. He abides with
  mindfulness of the body established, with an immeasurable mind, and he
  understands as it actually is the deliverance of mind and deliverance
  by wisdom wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without
  remainder. Having thus abandoned favouring and opposing, whatever
  feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful or
  neither-painful-nor-pleasant, he does not delight in that feeling,
  welcome it, or remain holding to it. As he does not do so, delight in
  feelings ceases in him. With the cessation of his delight comes
  cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of
  being; with the cessation of being, cessation of birth; with the
  cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain,
  grief, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of
  suffering.


Although these two verses are different, what is common to both verses is the event of: "on seeing a form with the eye". 

How do aging-&amp;-death cease when the eye sees a form?
Most probably imagine "ceases" to mean something like "ends". The fact is, "ceases" is a translation of "nirodha" which means "make it so it won't arise", "remove a necessary cause of arising" (what I call "prevent" or "dis-enable" in short). So the meaning of the passage is, when the eye sees a form, ear hears a sound etc. - if there is no like/dislike or craving/aversion modality established, then the cause that would normally push the wheel of D.O. to keep on spinning is not created. Because the cause is not created, the chain of events starting from the cause is not started. If this is only done occasionally with one form, then the other occasions would still give rise to the chain of events -- would push the wheel on spinning. But if this is done consistently for all forms, sounds, dharmas etc. - then the chain of D.O. is nirodha (prevented).

It is prevented because, as is explained in standard D.O. descriptions, enabled by Ignorance arise Tendencies. These tendencies are exactly the tendencies to like/dislike and to act based on this liking/disliking. Such tendencies feed and grow the entity-centric thinking and acting. This entity-centric thinking and acting gradually hardens into I-making, which culminates in death.

When stimuli like forms, sounds, dharmas etc. are taken "as-is", without forming personal attitude to them, the entity-centric thinking and acting is not perpetuated. Because it is not perpetuated, the I-making is not perpetuated. When I-making is not perpetuated - death does not apply.