[48] Bhikkhus, there are some ascetics and brahmins who hold a doctrine concerning the state after death (uddhamāghātanika), proponents of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, who declare the self after death to be neither percipient nor non-percipient, and this on eight grounds. And relying on what, taking up what, do those honorable ascetics and brahmins, holding a doctrine concerning the state after death, proponents of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, declare the self after death to be neither percipient nor non-percipient on eight grounds? They declare of it:
43. (1) 'The self is possessed of form, unimpaired (aroga) after death, neither percipient nor non-percipient.'
44. (2) 'The self is formless …'
45. (3) 'The self is both possessed of form and formless.'
46. (4) 'The self is neither possessed of form nor formless.'
47. (5) 'The self is finite.'
48. (6) 'The self is infinite.'
49. (7) 'The self is both finite and infinite.'
50. (8) They declare of it: 'The self is neither finite nor infinite, unimpaired after death, neither percipient nor non-percipient.'
Bhikkhus, it is on these eight grounds that those ascetics and brahmins, holding a doctrine concerning the state after death, proponents of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, declare the self after death to be neither percipient nor non-percipient. Bhikkhus, whatever ascetics or brahmins there may be who, holding a doctrine concerning the state after death and being proponents of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, declare the self after death to be neither percipient nor non-percipient, all of them do so on just these eight grounds, or on one or another of them; outside of this there is none. … by which those who, speaking rightly, would speak the genuine (yathābhucca) praise of the Tathāgata might speak.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.