What is non-consciousness?

What is non-consciousness? Non-consciousness is that which, among the Non-conscious Ones, arrests the mind and its mental states. Among the beings who take birth among the Non-Conscious Ones, i.e., the non-conscious gods, there is a dhanna that arrests the mind and its mental states, and which is called “non-consciousness.” By this dharma, the mind and future dharmas are, for a certain time, hindered from being produced and do not have the power to arise. This dharma is similar to what arrests the water of a river, that is, to a dike. This dharma is exclusively Retribution. It is exclusively the retribution of non-conscious absorption. Where do these non-conscious gods reside? They live in Brhatphala. In the heaven of the Brhatphalas there is a raised place which is the dwelling of the Non-Conscious Ones, in the same way as the dhydndntarikd, the dwelling of the Mahabrahma gods, is raised within the heaven of the Brahmapurohitas.

Vasubandhu was a 4th or 5th century Buddhist philosopher and scholar. His major work, the Abhidharma, reworked doctrinal material from the original Buddhist sutras into thematic groupings. Rather than being a work of analysis, scholars say that the Abhidharma (which means “higher teaching”) seeks only to summarize or systematize Buddhist beliefs. Vasubahdhu and his half-brother Asanga, another important Buddhist scholar, are considered the founders of the Yogacara school of Buddhism.