I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying in Savatthi, at Jeta's Grove ,,,
[Master Gotama said] "A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that a Tathagata has done away with. What a Tathagata sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception ... such are mental fabrications... such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' ... I say, a Tathagata — with the ending, fading out, cessation, renunciation, & relinquishment of all construings ... all I-making & mine-making ... — is, through lack of clinging, released."
[Vaccha asked] "But, Master Gotama, the monk whose mind is thus released: Where does he reappear?"
"'Reappear,' Vaccha, doesn't apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, he does not reappear."
"'Does not reappear,' Vaccha, doesn't apply."
"...Both does and does not reappear."
"...Doesn’t apply."
"...Neither does nor does not reappear."
"...Doesn’t apply."
"How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the monk reappears... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear, he says, '...doesn't apply' in each case. At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled ...
"Of course you're befuddled, Vaccha. Of course you're confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. ... How do you construe this, Vaccha: If a fire were burning in front of you, would you know that, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"
"...yes..."
...
"And suppose someone were to ask you, 'this fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction from here has it gone? East? West? North? Or south?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"
"That doesn't apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on a sustenance of grass and timber, being unnourished -- from having consumed that sustenance and not being offered any other -- is classified simply as 'out' (unbound)."
"Even so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Tathágata would describe him: That the Tathágata has abandoned, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Tathágata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears' doesn't apply. 'Does not reappear' doesn't apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' doesn't apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' doesn't apply.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html