Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (102)

The Three Doors of Liberation

Original text: 大王当知。诸根如幻。境界如梦。一切诸法。皆悉空寂。此名空解脱门。空无空相。名无相解脱门。若无有相。即无愿求。名无愿解脱门。如是三法。与空共行。涅盘先道。当如是学。

Explanation: The great king should know that the six faculties are like illusions, and the various sense objects are like dreams. All dharmas are entirely empty and tranquil; this is called the door of liberation of emptiness. Dharmas being empty yet without even the mark of emptiness is called the door of liberation of signlessness. If dharmas have no marks at all, then one should not generate any aspirations or longings; having no aspirations is called the door of liberation of wishlessness. These three doors of liberation—emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness—exist together with emptiness; the path leading to nirvāṇa should be cultivated and studied in this way.

The six faculties—eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind—are all illusory manifestations. The various objects the eyes see, the various objects the ears hear, the objects the six faculties engage with are like things in a dream, not real. What more should we pursue? All dharmas are entirely empty and tranquil; there is nothing that is not empty, nothing that is not quiescent—there is nothing at all. This is the door of liberation of emptiness. When one realizes that all dharmas are empty and knows they are empty, the mind is liberated.

Emptiness without the mark of emptiness is called the door of liberation of signlessness. Empty dharmas have no appearance that can be seen, spoken of, or pointed out—even emptiness itself is empty. This is the door of liberation of signlessness. Knowing that emptiness has no marks whatsoever, that even emptiness does not exist, the mind is further liberated. If even the mark of emptiness does not exist, if even emptiness itself does not exist, then what attachment to emptiness could there be?

If there are no marks, then there are no aspirations: if there are not even any marks, what should we still seek? What aspirations could remain? There is nothing more to seek—this is the door of liberation of wishlessness. Without aspirations, the mind is even more liberated. When we have accomplished the three doors of liberation—emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness—we are noble ones (āryas).

The three dharmas of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness proceed together with emptiness: they neither depart from emptiness, nor do they carry the mark of emptiness; the three are not separate from one another, progressing layer by layer toward ultimate liberation. If we wish to enter nirvāṇa and attain the unborn and unceasing, we should cultivate in this way, continuously generating mental activities of emptiness, becoming ever more empty, until even emptiness itself is empty—only then is the emptiness thorough and clean. If there still remains an "emptiness" in the mind, then it is not true emptiness; one should still extinguish the mental activity of emptiness. One should cultivate and study in this way on the path to nirvāṇa, and then one can realize nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is liberation; nirvāṇa is the unborn and unceasing; nirvāṇa is tranquil non-action; nirvāṇa is great freedom and ease.