🔗📝collection of notes on Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ:

 Internal

pattern "anidass" appears in 5 suttas:

DN ^11.4.1 where nāma, rūpa, viññāna cease without remainder

DN ^33.3 threefold classification of rūpa with 4 permutations of visible (dassana) and resistant (patigha)

MN ^21.6 sky is ākāso arūpī anidassano, formless and invisible

MN ^49.9.7 Buddha says Brahma has no knowledge of Viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ anantaṃ sabbato pabhaṃ

SN ^43.44 Anidassanañca is listed among other synonyms for nirvana

DN 33 is not talking about viññāna, just rūpa.

MN 21 context is doing metta to the whole world, so even though viññāna is not mentioned, but metta can be done with 4 jhānas (which operate in rūpa) or formless dimensions.

The remaining 3 suttas all seem to be the context of samādhi perceiving nirvana.

so what is the best translation for anidassana? Sujato's "invisible consciousness" is untenable if we assume it should have the same translation for all 5 suttas.

And DN 11 and SN 43 show this state is definitely not referring the dimension of infinite consciousness.

In DN 11, in this state nāma, rūpa, viññāna all cease. Obviously those things can't cease in dimension of infinite consciousness.

Translations for anidassana:

Bodhi: unmanifest

Thanissaro: without surface:

External

Essay by Charlie

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/dn11-five-aggregates-vinanna-anidassana/31147

Essay by Sunyo (proposing this is formless state of infinite consciousness)

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/vinna-a-anidassana-the-state-of-boundless-consciousness/22262