How to Transcend the Firm Barriers

The Barrier Gate, as the name suggests, is the gate of the prison. What is the prison? The Three Realms are the prison, and the world of the Five Aggregates is the prison. Where is the gate to exit this prison? It lies in severing the view of self and the attachment to self, and further, in not clinging even to this 'I' of Tathagatagarbha. The mind must be empty and pure. This can only be discussed based on the realization of Tathagatagarbha, hence it is called the Third Barrier Gate in Zen. Accomplishing this allows one to pass through the gate of the prison of birth and death, attaining liberation from the Three Realms and liberation from the bondage of the body composed of the Five Aggregates. In terms of the Hinayana path, this corresponds at minimum to the liberation merit of the Third Fruition. The mind is liberated, having eradicated the afflictions of greed and hatred. At the end of life, one severs the attachment to self, severs fundamental ignorance, and gains the ability to attain the remainderless Nirvana. In terms of meditative concentration, the requirement is to have at least the first dhyana; higher levels of concentration are not necessary, though of course, deeper concentration is preferable. However, it is not as some say, requiring the cultivation of the body of the Five Aggregates to become like a piece of wood or to be extinguished, etc. Such attainments are only possible for Bodhisattvas of the higher grounds, even up to the Eighth Ground. Those who are around the stage of the Third Barrier Gate in Zen belong to Bodhisattvas in the Ten Practices and Ten Dedications stages, still far from the level of an Eighth Ground Bodhisattva.