  The Vaibhāṣika rebuttal to the notion that some subtle  form consciousness persists even after the attainment of cessation  points to the tripartite nature of the dependently arising cognitive  phenomena: cognitive awareness, being inherently intentional, is  always directed toward an object, and whenever there is contact with  such an object there is feeling and apperception. In response, the  Sautrāntika insists that not all contact leads automatically to  sensation (as is the case with advanced contemplatives such as the  Arhats) and furthermore that the notion of attainment itself  (samāpatti) in fact implies the presence of a conscious state of the attainment of cessation. That state of attainment is not sustained by any substantive elements of existence (viz., the  trans-temporal dharmas of the Vaibhāṣika) but rather by  the thought of attainment itself (samāpatticitta). It  is this thought of attainment that prevents, for as long as a  meditator is able to sustain it, the arising of any other thoughts.  The attainment of cessation, then, is simply a temporary state of  non-mentation.