I believe that the fundamental point the Buddha was making goes even a bit further - it is that there is no Tathataga or truthfinder that ever existed (it is just a fabrication), and therefore can not, no longer exist. The question goes to the foundation of what exists v/s not exists. This is the question that is being rejected. The aggregates were/are there, a body to identify as a person was/is there, but it is not a SELF. Therefore no self existed, exists or will cease to exist upon pari-nibbana. There is what appears to the unenlightened to be a self - but that is a delusion - this is the cause of suffering. This doesn’t mean that there is nothing there - we are definitely here But this is just form, feeling, perception, sankharas and the stream of consciousness, the thing propelled by craving and subject to re-birth, and just the process of dependent arising - no SELF. To call this bundle a person or a Tathagata etc is just language and is deceptive as it strengthens the illusion of a self - that bundle becomes identified as a person, as I and me .
It is like mistaking a puppet or a robot for a self. It is hardly surprising - this natural process that the Buddha describes shows how this ‘awareness of self’ comes to be. The elements and aggregates work together through natural processes (including all the consciousnesses, the mind, and the knower), through the process explained by the Buddha in paticcasamupāda, and give the illusion of an existing self. We call that a ‘being’ or a ‘person’, but on full analysis… it is misleading to make any speculations about something that is labelled a Self (or could be identified as a self by the questioner) - this is the fundamental delusion (ignorance) that awakening dispells. This is how I understand the message of the Yamaka sutta, where Yamaka finally makes the break through at the end of that discourse.
So here’s a fun thought - there are no Arahants There are simply things that people (themselves or others) identify as arahants. So to ask what happens to an Arahant after death, is really asking what happens to my constructed idea of what an Arahant is - after (what’s) death??? it doesn’t make sense… and is not to be entertained or answered, for fear of strengthening rather than dispelling the delusion.
Of course in our process of daily life and interacting with others, we are constrained by language and use conventions… to speak like this is too cumbersome and would be silly - but this is all just use of conventions and language, and the Buddha was addressing these teachings at a completely different (supramundane) level.
Exerpt from the Yamaka sutta SN 22.85
“What do you think, Yamaka? Do you regard the Realized One as possessing form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness?”
“No, reverend.”
“What do you think, Yamaka? Do you regard the Realized One as one who is without form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness?”
“No, reverend.”
“In that case, Reverend Yamaka, since you don’t acknowledge the Realized One as a genuine fact in the present life, is it appropriate to declare: ‘As I understand the Buddha’s teaching, a mendicant who has ended the defilements is annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and doesn’t exist after death.’?”
“Reverend Sāriputta, in my ignorance, I used to have that misconception. But now that I’ve heard the teaching from Venerable Sāriputta I’ve given up that misconception, and I’ve comprehended the teaching.”
“Reverend Yamaka, suppose they were to ask you: ‘When their body breaks up, after death, what happens to a perfected one, who has ended the defilements?’ How would you answer?”
“Sir, if they were to ask this, I’d answer like this: ‘Reverend, form is impermanent. What’s impermanent is suffering. What’s suffering has ceased and ended.
Feeling … perception … choices … consciousness is impermanent. What’s impermanent is suffering. What’s suffering has ceased and ended.’ That’s how I’d answer such a question.”
“Good, good, Reverend Yamaka!
SuttaCentral!