Cessation Is Bodhi

"Resting is bodhi" means that the resting mind, the mind at rest, is an unconditioned mind, not attached to the worldly dharmas of the three realms, having no mind toward all dharmas, without the mental activity of intending to fabricate anything, constantly abiding in a state of quiescence and cessation, without the mental activity of the three realms' world—this is also called "the cessation of mental activity" (citta-caryā-nirodha). This mind is the eighth consciousness. In fact, the eighth consciousness is still conditioned: it constantly follows and complies with the manas to create all dharmas of the three realms' world, yet it does not crave or cling to its own creations, nor does it crave or cling to any dharmas—within the conditioned, it is at all times and places unconditioned.

The unconditioned nature of the eighth consciousness is manifested in His acting in accordance with conditions, spontaneously and effortlessly, entering birth and death in accordance with conditions, while He Himself has no birth and death, not clinging to any dharmas, not grasping at any dharmas, and not discriminating among any dharmas. This mental nature is called the resting mind. The resting mind is the inherent nature of the eighth consciousness—He is originally at rest, with no mind toward affairs and no affairs in His mind, doing nothing at all, utterly free of obstruction. It is not the kind of resting mind that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, through cultivation, later transform into—the unconditioned dharma of the eighth consciousness. In any case, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are all within the eighth consciousness; they are all manifested by the eighth consciousness and belong to the eighth consciousness, so the question of whether they return to the eighth consciousness does not even arise. That is to say, among all dharmas there are true dharmas and false dharmas: true dharmas are inherently true, and false dharmas are inherently false; no matter what, false dharmas can never become true dharmas.