起信論疏筆削記 9.25

9.25

"As for cessation..." below: Fourth, the mark of cessation. "Ceasing the prior different mind": delusion reaches its culmination here and enters the karmic path. Like the mark of cessation in the Hīnayāna, it ceases the present mind and makes it enter the past. As for "Through avidyā," etc.: from subtle to prominent, giving rise to delusion and creating karma. Once the karmic cause is completed, the mind invites the future retribution; the affairs of a single period are concluded, and it is therefore called fully completed. Because it is fully completed, it is called the mark of cessation, not that afflictions will not arise from this point on. It is like a person planning a project: when the conditions are assembled and the project is accomplished, it is called fully completed. Below "Because retribution...": or someone may ask: "Among the nine marks, the four marks of arising and so forth have already subsumed the first eight; why do they not subsume the mark of suffering bound to karma?" Therefore this explains it. The intention is: regarding the cause, that which has not been committed is not committed, and that which has been committed is overturned and eliminated, meaning there is the possibility of severance. But when it comes to the karmic retribution, when one is already in the place of receiving it, it cannot be severed. Just as once one has arrived in hell, one must inevitably suffer it. Therefore the Buddha instructed to know suffering and sever the origin, not to sever suffering; this is the meaning, and therefore it is set aside and not spoken of in the present text. "The sixth" refers to the very last of the six coarse marks.