/lit/ - Literature

>>17225424
I think the problem here is that you're taking consciousness as the standard for evaluating everything else, while Buddhist phenomenology implies that there are things beyond consciousness, which itself is only an aggregate.
The Bardo Thodol (putting aside the fact that it's only really taken seriously by Tibetan Buddhists) describes the process of rebirth or liberation. There are three intermediate states (or bardos) through which the pure mind, separated from the body, goes through. In each of those bardos, the realization that all you are perceiving is the "spontaneous play of your own mind" leads to immediate liberation by realizing the existence of the Dharmakaya, which itself is beyond consciousness. So consciousness is not seen as the be-all and end-all in Buddhism, and Mahayana especially takes the Dharmakaya, Shunyata and buddha-nature as some fundamental concepts that do not require the changing stream of consciousness.
You'll find that most religions don't posit the consciousness or ego identity as anything else than an illusion, anyway. Buddhism isn't really an exception or an anomaly, it's just particularly extreme in its apophatism.