I believe ignorance must not be seen as a first cause. It is more like ignorance is in the center of a wheel and keeps the wheel going. It feeds the forward movement.
Ignorance is surely no cause for consciousness. An arahant has no ignorance but still consciousness.
Ignorance, in general, is seen as what support karmic formations, meritorious, demeritorious and another category, socalled ‘imperturbable volitional formation’, i yet do not really understand.
“As he thoroughly investigates he understands thus: ‘Volitional formations have ignorance as their source, ignorance as their origin; they are born and produced from ignorance. When there is ignorance, volitional formations come to be; when there is no ignorance, volitional formations do not come to be.’
(SN12.51)
This volition keeps the wheel turning and avijja is the root cause. Meaning, without avijja, not such karmically loaded volitional formations arise and also no vinnana with that load(kamma vinnana).
The sutta fragment you refer to does not say that mind and consciousness are the same but it only says that often, also in the Netherlands, we use such words as mind and consciousness loosely and can use the word mind and conscious as synonyms. But, ofcourse, that does not mean that there are also good grounds, rational, not to do that, and talk about mind and consciousness pointing to something different. The more one knows and sees the more grounds one will find for distinguishing mind and consciousness.
This sutta fragment is often refered to, ‘to proove’ (or make a point) that Buddha would teach that there is no difference between vinnana and mind, but that cannot be said based upon this sutta.
I think that all buddhist accept that without sense consciousness, not being aware of anything, one is
not mindless. And even abiding in sannavedaytanirodha mind has not ceased.
There is no person in the entire world that has ever seen mind ceasing. What would see that? But one can know and see that eye-vinnana ceases, ear vinnana…mental vinnana. But no one has ever seen nor directly known the cessation of the mind.
I think there is no reason to believe it can cease. Mind is fundamental to life. The ground of all that exist, i think. A oneness. Reifying it, turning it into a phenomena, a self, conceiving it, seeing it as some kind of consciousness, leads to all kinds of problems. But we can just accept that there is an emptiness which is not mere empty but has also an aspect or element of intelligence.
I believe this is rational. For example, how can rebirth take place in empty space? It is much more rational that rebirth takes place against the background of an intelligent field, the citta, a oneness.
How can a lifestream, a stream of vinnana, move trough empty space after death? Such ideas are irrational. But when there is a all pervasive ground, a kind of intelligent field, then that can support all.
