Nirvāṇa without remainder does not belong to the realm of meditative concentration (samādhi)

Question: After an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder, is nirvāṇa without remainder a state of meditative concentration (samādhi)?

Answer: In a state of meditative concentration, there should be a master—someone who enters the state of concentration, and in the future there will be someone who exits the state of concentration. But in nirvāṇa there is no master, no one who enters nirvāṇa. The arhat's five aggregates and eighteen realms have all been extinguished, the manas has also been extinguished, and thus there is no arhat anymore. Since no one enters nirvāṇa without remainder, no one exits nirvāṇa without remainder either; therefore nirvāṇa without remainder does not belong to the states of meditative concentration.

Any dharma with exiting and entering is a dharma of arising, ceasing, and change, not an everlasting dharma. Therefore the eighth consciousness neither enters nirvāṇa without remainder nor exits nirvāṇa without remainder. The eighth consciousness is not within nirvāṇa without remainder, nor is it outside nirvāṇa without remainder; it is neither identical to nor different from nirvāṇa without remainder.

The eighth consciousness is a dharma abandoned by the worldly, and it does not keep company with any worldly dharma. After all the worldly dharmas—the five aggregates and eighteen realms—have been extinguished, the eighth consciousness does not perish along with them but stands serenely independent; this is precisely why there is nirvāṇa without remainder. Otherwise, there would not even be nirvāṇa without remainder: after the five aggregates and eighteen realms are extinguished, everything would be finished once and for all, nothing would exist at all, and there would be no future lives or lives after those. When the five aggregates and eighteen realms arise, the eighth consciousness does not arise along with them; it already existed from the very beginning, fully present and ready-made, needing no arising.