Thank you.
In fact, this is the only reasonable way to address the problem — the causal impulse (or karmic potential) must somehow be preserved in the form of a material continuum and then give rise to a renewed process of consciousness. Regardless of whether such a solution is actually possible, it remains the least problematic option from the Theravāda standpoint.
And it seems you’ve correctly grasped the essence of the question I raised.
Bhikkhu Bodhi in The All-Embracing Net of Views, translates the Commentary. Here is the relevant section:
pp 171 - 172
68. There are, bhikkhus, certain gods called “non-percipient beings.”
CY. “Non-percipient beings” (asaññasattā): this is the heading of the teaching. Because they arise without mind, their individual forms consist of mere materiality (rūpamattabhāva). Their origin is explained as follows.
Someone who has gone forth into a sectarian order practices the preliminary work of meditation on the wind kasiṇa and develops the fourth jhāna. After emerging from the jhāna he sees the fault in mind (citta) thus:
“When there is mind, one is exposed to the suffering of having one’s hands mutilated, etc., and to all kinds of perils. Enough with mind! The unconscious state alone is peaceful.”
Having thus seen the fault in mind, if he passes away without having fallen away from the jhāna, he is reborn among the non-percipient beings. With the cessation of his final death-consciousness, his mental process desists here in the human world, and the mere aggregate of material form becomes manifest in the non-percipient realm.
Just as an arrow driven by the propulsive force of the bow-string travels through space to a distance exactly proportional to the propulsive force of the string, in the same way this being, taking rebirth among the non-percipient beings through the propulsive force of the jhāna, remains in that realm for a time exactly proportional to the propulsive force of the jhāna.
When the force of the jhāna is exhausted, the aggregate of material form disappears there, in the realm of the non-percipient beings, and a rebirth-linking perception (paṭisandhisaññā) arises here, in the human world.
Because their passing away from the non-percipient realm is discerned through the arising of perception here, it is said:
“When perception arises in them, those gods pass away from that plane.”
The rest is evident.
Bodhi note: [Akkhaṇabhūmi. The non-percipient realm is regarded as an inopportune plane of existence because it is neither itself a true deliverance from saṃsāra, nor, due to the absence of perception and mind, a plane favorable to the attainment of true deliverance. Particularly at a time when a Buddha appears in the world, the non-percipient plane is inopportune because its inhabitants have no opportunity to see him or listen to his teachings.
The disappearance of craving for the material and the immaterial referred to here is the temporary suppression of craving through these meditative developments and not its complete eradication, which can only come about through the wisdom of the supramundane paths.]
Net of Views continued:
pp172 -174
Sub.Cy. “The heading of the teaching”: perception is mentioned as the principal factor in the teaching. For the Exalted One delivered this teaching making perception alone the burden, but he did not intend to suggest that the other immaterial dhammas exist there. Hence he says: “Because they arise without mind.”
For when the Exalted One teaches supramundane (lokuttara) dhammas, he makes concentration or wisdom the burden; and when he teaches mundane (lokiya) dhammas, he makes mind or perception the burden. This is illustrated by the following citations.
On the supramundane:
“On the occasion when one develops the supramundane jhāna” (Dhs 277).
“Right concentration endowed with five factors” (DN 34).
“Right concentration endowed with five kinds of knowledge” (DN 34).
“Having seen with wisdom, his cankers are eliminated” (MN 30), etc.
On the mundane:
“On the occasion when a wholesome state of consciousness pertaining to the sense sphere has arisen” (Dhs 1).
“What were you conscious of, bhikkhu?” (Svibh Pārājika 1.2).
“Mind is the forerunner of dhammas” (Dhp 1).
“There are, bhikkhus, beings diverse in body and diverse in perception” (AN 9:24).
And “the base of neither perception nor non-perception.”
“A sectarian order”: in a creed of the sectarians outside the Buddha’s Dispensation. For the sectarians, perceiving emancipation to be attained through a distinguished form of rebirth, or seeing the danger in perception and the benefits in its fading away, develop the non-percipient meditative attainment and take rebirth in no inopportune plane of existence. But not those belonging to the Buddha’s Dispensation.
“He practices the preliminary work of meditation on the wind kasiṇa”: having attained the first three jhānas on the wind kasiṇa, having achieved mastery over the third jhāna, he emerges from it and practices the preliminary work for the attainment of the fourth jhāna.
Query: Why is the preliminary work on the wind kasiṇa alone mentioned?
Reply: Just as the particular immaterial meditative attainment called “the development of the fading away of the material” (rūpavirāgabhāvanā) is realized by the elimination of materiality in the particular kasiṇas which serve as the counterparts of materiality, in the same way the particular material attainment called “the development of the fading away of the immaterial” (arūpavirāgabhāvanā) is attained by the elimination of the immaterial factors in the particular kasiṇa, that is, the wind kasiṇa, which, because it lacks a distinct shape, serves as the counterpart of the immaterial.
Herein, the determination upon the material attainment is formed by seeing the danger in the occurrence of the immaterial through the contemplation: “Perception is a sickness, perception is a boil,” etc., or: “Away with consciousness, consciousness is despicable,” etc., and by holding the conviction that the peaceful and sublime state is to be found in the absence of the immaterial.
The “development of the fading away of the material” is the immaterial attainments together with their access; in particular, the first immaterial jhāna.
Query: If so, shouldn’t the limited space kasiṇa also be mentioned? For this, too, is a counterpart of the immaterial.
Reply: This is actually accepted by some, but because it was not included by the ancient teachers it is not stated here. However, there is nothing wrong if it is said that the fading away of the immaterial can be accomplished in virtue of the fact that certain dhammas, that is, the immaterial dhammas, can be made to fade away, and that it becomes manifest in any particular domain serving as the counterpart of those dhammas.
But because this is the practice the sectarians themselves must undertake for this attainment, and because they practice this jhāna, that is, the fourth jhāna on the wind kasiṇa, which is closely connected with the objective domain of the immaterial attainment, the keen-visioned teachers of old have mentioned only the preliminary work on the wind kasiṇa as the practice for the development of the fading away of the immaterial.
Moreover, it is common knowledge that the jhāna on the first three element kasiṇas, that is, the kasiṇas of earth, water, and fire, like that on the color kasiṇas, takes as its conceptual object the after-image of a color; therefore the Visuddhimagga (IV, 31) describes the earth-kasiṇa by the similes of the mirror and the disc of the moon. But the kasiṇa of the fourth element enters the range of the jhāna only as the after-image of the element. Thus it is proper to call it the counterpart of the immaterial and to mention the preliminary work on the wind kasiṇa alone.
Query: If, as the commentary says, the mere aggregate of material form becomes manifest in the non-percipient realm, how can materiality occur there without dependence on the immaterial factors?
[Isn’t it true that the aggregate of material form must originate in dependence on the immaterial factors, for it is never seen to originate independently here, in five-constituent existence?]
Reply: This is no objection, and it is not applicable to other cases. For one might just as well ask in return how the immaterial factors in the immaterial realm can occur without dependence on materiality. This state of affairs belongs to the same category.
Why?
Because it is never seen here. Along the same lines, no materiality should occur in the fine-material realm without edible nutriment.
For what reason?
Because it is never seen here.
Furthermore, the mental continuum that has for its generative cause the non-disappearance of craving for materiality, because it originates together with materiality, occurs in dependence on the latter. The mental continuum that has for its generative cause the disappearance of craving for materiality, because of its indifference to materiality, occurs without the latter.
Similarly, the succession of material dhammas that has for its generative cause the disappearance of craving for the immaterial occurs without the immaterial dhammas.
NSub.Cy. In the five-constituent existence, due to the absence of the power of meditative development, the material and immaterial dhammas originate together; in the four-constituent existence, through the power of meditative development, the immaterial alone originates; and in the non-percipient existence, again due to the power of meditative development, the material alone originates.
Net of Views continued:
pp175 -176
Sub.Cy. Query: How can it be believed that the bare succession of material dhammas continues there, in the non-percipient realm, for such a long time without contemporaneous conditions for its support? And for how long a time does it occur?
Reply: Anticipating such a question, the commentary says: “Just as an arrow, by the propulsive force of the bow-string,” etc. By this he shows that not only scripture, but this analogy as well demonstrates the point. The non-percipient beings remain in that realm for at most five hundred great aeons. The “propulsive force of the jhāna” is the force of the kamma accumulated in the non-percipient meditative attainment.
Query: How, after the lapse of many hundreds of aeons, can consciousness again originate from a consciousness series that has ceased so long ago? No visual consciousness is ever seen to originate when the eye has ceased.
Reply: This should not be considered one-sidedly. For if no consciousness of the same class has arisen in the interval, even the consciousness that has ceased long ago can act as a proximity condition (anantarapaccaya) for the rebirth-consciousness. It is not the seed; kamma alone is the seed.
But, on account of that kamma functioning as the seed, when beings pass away from the non-percipient realm a rebirth-consciousness with its conditions such as object condition, etc., arises in the sense sphere. Thus the commentary says: “A rebirth-linking perception arises here.”
When a scion is removed from a tree which, in accordance with the order of the seasons, blossoms at a fixed time, by the force of the scission the blossoming of the scion does not necessarily occur at the same time as that of the parent tree. In the same way, when, by the development of the fading away of the material, or of the immaterial, a scission is made in the material and immaterial dhammas occurring inseparably in five-constituent existence, by reason of the incisive force of the attainment the aggregates in the immaterial realm and in the non-percipient realm occur devoid of their material and immaterial counterparts, respectively.