How do the four marks (cessation, change, etc,) build?

The four marks are, in order from coarse to subtle 1. Cessation 2. Changing 3. Abiding 4. Arising These are discussed in a number of places, but the English language translator of Kihwa's (Korean) commentary on the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, seems to associate them with the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana. See e.g. p157 of that book. What I'm wondering, is how this works, how does the meditator go about "eliminating its mistaken function" (presumably -- see them to be empty), if there are no entities to be found in the first place? i.e. do they study the mark of cessation, then study the mark of change, etc., as if each mark inhered on some identical object? Or is the mark of change just another way of looking at the mark of cessation, without any thought really bearing the four?