Is the Mind in the Body?

Neither the exhaustion of the aggregate of form nor the exhaustion of the aggregate of feeling has been realized, but theoretically the state of the exhaustion of the aggregate of feeling can be explained. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra says that when the aggregate of feeling is exhausted, the mind leaves the body, meaning that when there is no mind consciousness in the body, there are no feelings in the body—no sensations of pain, nor of ease and comfort. At that time, whether one is killed, dismembered, or spared, being at the mercy of others brings no pain; cutting off the hands and feet, the head, or the eyes produces no sensation of pain, and the body is like a piece of wood. So then, is the conscious mind inside the body?

If the conscious mind were inside the physical body, then by cutting the body open bit by bit, one would be able to find the conscious mind; yet no matter how one searches, it cannot be found, so the conscious mind is not inside the physical body. If the conscious mind were outside the physical body, it would have nothing to do with the body, and the body would have none of the functions and operations of the five aggregates; therefore the conscious mind is not outside the physical body either. If the conscious mind were in between, there is in fact no concept or location of an "in between." If one calls the surface of the body the "in between," that is incorrect, for the surface of the body belongs to the physical body; if one calls the place just outside the surface of the body, adjacent to the body, the "in between," that belongs to the outside of the physical body. Therefore the conscious mind is not in between the physical body either.

Then where is the conscious mind? No matter what the six consciousnesses discern, what they discern are shadows/images, not the original appearance of the six external sense objects; the original appearance is discerned by the eighth consciousness, and is called the essential realm (the underlying object).