7.
The Discourse about Udāyī
234.
On one occasion the Venerable Ānanda and the Venerable Udāyī were dwelling at Kosambī in Ghosita's park.
Then the Venerable Udāyī, in the evening, having emerged from seclusion, approached the Venerable Ānanda;
having approached, he exchanged friendly greetings with the Venerable Ānanda.
Having concluded the pleasant and memorable talk, he sat down to one side.
Seated to one side, the Venerable Udāyī said this to the Venerable Ānanda -
"Just as, friend Ānanda, this body has been declared, unveiled, and made clear by the Blessed One in many ways - 'Thus this body is non-self,' is it possible in the same way to declare, teach, describe, establish, reveal, analyse, and make manifest this consciousness - 'Thus this consciousness is non-self'?"
"Just as, friend Udāyī, this body has been declared, unveiled, and made clear by the Blessed One in many ways - 'Thus this body is non-self,' is it possible in the same way to declare, teach, describe, establish, reveal, analyse, and make manifest this consciousness - 'Thus this consciousness is non-self.'"
"Friend, dependent on the eye and forms, does eye-consciousness arise?" "Yes, friend." "Friend, whatever cause and whatever condition there is for the arising of eye-consciousness, if that cause and that condition were to cease entirely, in every way, without remainder, would eye-consciousness be discerned?" "No indeed, friend." "By this method too, friend, this has been declared, unveiled, and made clear by the Blessed One - 'Thus this consciousness is non-self.'" Etc.
"Friend, dependent on the tongue and flavours, does tongue-consciousness arise?" "Yes, friend." "Friend, whatever cause and whatever condition there is for the arising of tongue-consciousness, if that cause and that condition were to cease entirely, in every way, without remainder, would tongue-consciousness be discerned?" "No indeed, friend." "By this method too, friend, this has been declared, unveiled, and made clear by the Blessed One - 'Thus this consciousness is non-self.'" Etc.
"Friend, dependent on the mind and mind-objects, does mind-consciousness arise?" "Yes, friend." "Friend, whatever cause and whatever condition there is for the arising of mind-consciousness, if that cause and that condition were to cease entirely, in every way, without remainder, would mind-consciousness be discerned?" "No indeed, friend." "By this method too, friend, this has been declared, unveiled, and made clear by the Blessed One - 'Thus this consciousness is non-self.'"
"Just as, friend, a man desiring the substance, seeking the substance, wandering about in search of the substance, having taken a sharp axe, might enter a forest. There he might see a great plantain trunk, upright, young, without a fruit-bud core. He might cut it at the root; having cut it at the root he might cut it at the top; having cut it at the top he might unroll the leaf-sheaths. He would not find even the soft wood there, whence the substance! So too, friend, a monk does not regard anything as self or as what belongs to a self in the six sense bases of contact. He, thus not regarding, does not cling to anything in the world. Not clinging, he is not agitated. Not being agitated, he personally attains final nibbāna. He understands: 'Birth is eliminated, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming back to any state of being.'" The seventh.