Dear Dimitri
Nimitta: sign or image, also referring to kasina.
Path of Discrimination, Treatise on Knowledge, Ch VIII, Appearance as Terror
(is stage of insight),
seeing danger in arising moment, sustaining moment, appearance (nimitta,
sankhaara nimitta), accumulation, rebirth.
Nimitta can mean condition. The Commentary: nimitta means ayuhaana,
accumulation, compiling.
You have this text, maybe this can help you.
My Pali Thai dict: several meanings, among which: sign, hetu, primary
source.
It can refers to condition and conditioned realities.
Animitta, often translated as signless refers to the unconditioned reality,
nibbaana. In some contexts it can mean: absence of lobha.
Now quoting a transl I did from Thai:
<All arahats abide by nature in the following three kinds of vipassanå,
insight knowledge: the void abiding (suññata vihåra), the signless abiding
(animitta vihåra) and the desireless abiding (appanihita vihåra). In the
Commentary to the ³Path of Discrimination², to Chapter IX, Equanimity about
Formations (sankhårupekkhåñåna), we read:

³With regard to the abiding in the three kinds of insight by the arahats
who wish to abide in vipassanå, without fruition-attainment: they see the
clinging to oneself as a danger, and they are inclined to the void abiding
(suññatå vihåra, voidness of self); they see the decline(of conditioned
dhammas) by equanimity about formations under the aspect of the void
abiding. They see as a danger the characteristics of conditioned realities
(sankhåranimitta), and they are inclined to the signless abiding (animitta
vihåra); they see the decline (of conditioned dhammas) by equanimity about
formations under the aspect of the signless abiding. They see as a danger
the steadfastness of clinging, and they are inclined to the desireless
abiding (appanihita vihåra); they see the decline (of conditioned dhammas)
by equanimity about formations under the aspect of the desireless abiding.>

I hope that this helps you,
Nina.

op 13-03-2003 20:47 schreef Äìèòðèé Àëåêñååâè÷ Èâàõíåíêî (Dimitry A.
Ivakhnenko) op koleso@...:

>
> Would you be so kind to relate the authoritative explanation of
> nimitta as a cause. What kind of cause is it? What does it cause? Are
> there any examples of such causes?