One of the dhamma talks I was listening to pointed out a phrase that many people would say after gaining stream-entry. Using the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta as an example, at the end Kondañña says:
Ajahn Thanissaro
Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation
Ven Sujato
Everything that has a beginning has an end
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation
This phrase is littered throughout the suttas such that it is a commonly known phrase. What is interesting about it is that it doesn’t say all is subject to cessation or everything has an end. Rather, whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation or everything that has a beginning has an end.
This points to the fact that there are one more more elements that are NOT subject to origination and therefore are NOT subject to cessation. If there were not one or more of these elements, the Buddha and other arahants could simply have said all is subject to cessation, which they did not.
We can’t speculate on what the characteristics of any unconditioned elements may be because we would be caught up in trying to understand unconditional within the context of the aggregates which are conditional. However, whether it is labelled as ‘consciousness without surface’ or something else, the suttas clearly point to a category of phenomena that is outside the realm of the conditioned.
From this perspective, the various conflicting views we have may be because the words used to describe aspects of an awakened being all have roots in what is conditioned. This subsequently results in either a complete rejection of the words, tending toward nihilism or a mistaken understanding of the words tending towards eternalism. It is difficult to simply understand the words as a placeholder for something we have not yet experienced for ourselves.