大乘起信論略述 1.172

1.172

Treatise: "Answer: What is said [to cease is only the characteristics of the mind that cease,] not the essence of the mind that ceases."
Exposition: The answer below has three parts: doctrine, metaphor, and application. This is the first part. What was stated earlier—that when objects cease the concordant mind ceases—means that because deluded objects cease, only the coarse mental characteristics of the consciousness of phenomena cease, not that the true mental essence of the consciousness of phenomena ceases. Since ignorance is not the true mind, when its own essence attains the antidote, ignorance ceases; therefore those unconcorded three fine mental characteristics attain complete cessation, yet it is also not that the true mental essence ceases. This then briefly answers the previous two questions.