Sir, on several occasions, when various teachers, Samaṇas and Brahmans, had met together, and were seated in the debating hall, the talk fell on trance, and the question was: [180] “How then, Sirs, is the cessation of consciousness brought about?”
‘Now on that some said thus: “Ideas come to a man without a reason and without a cause, and so also do they pass away. At the time when they spring up within him, then he becomes conscious; when they pass away, then he becomes unconscious.” Thus did they explain the cessation of consciousness.
On that another said: “That, Sirs, will never be so as you say. Consciousness, Sirs, is a man’s soul. It is the soul that comes and goes. When the soul comes into a man then he becomes conscious, when the soul goes away out of a man then he becomes unconscious.” Thus do others explain the cessation of consciousness……
Then, Sir, the memory of the Exalted One arose in me, and I thought: “Would that the Exalted One, would that the Happy One were here, he who is so skilled in these psychical states.” For the Exalted One would know how trance is brought about. How, then, Sir, is there cessation of consciousness?’
7. ‘Well, as to that, Poṭṭhapāda, those Samaṇas and Brahmans who said that ideas come to a man and pass away without a reason, and without a cause, are wrong from the very commencement……..
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