What is the mark of cessation?

What is the "mark of cessation"? E.g. from Kihwa's _Commentary on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment_: > From the standpoint of cultivation and severing, the sequence is from > coarse to subtle: ceasing, changing, abiding, and arising. > If you extinguish the mark of cessation, then you have for the first time attained the level of faith. Is it an abstract entity? If so, how would Dignaga's theory of apoha account for it? If not, I think it would be phenomenal, but I don't know what sort of actual thing it could be. I mean, can it studied empirically, like fire, or like consciousness? Does it matter either way to Buddhist practice or just life in general? --- Here's a copy of the text in question: