I have come accross this passage which I would like to discuss.“‘Consciousness without surface,
without end,
luminous all around:
Here water, earth, fire, & wind
have no footing.
Here long & short
coarse & fine
fair & foul
name & form
are all brought to an end.
With the cessation of consciousness
each is here brought to an end.’”
In this extract it appears the buddha is stating that there is a Consciousness that is seperate from the elements, name and form etc but Consciousness as i understand depends on six sense bases etc for exsistence so how can there be consciousness seperate from this?
Also it says "With the cessation of consciousness each is here brought to an end" but at the begining the buddha states "Consciousness, without surface, without end" which appears to describe a consciousness after cesstation, but how can there be consciousness when consciousness has come to cesstation?
Hope that made sense.
Any thoughts on this passage?