four_gateways_to_liberation
According to Sutra there are three gateways to liberation, whereas according to Vajrayana there are four gateways (Tib.<big> རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོ་བཞི་</big>, Wyl. rnam par thar pa’i sgo bzhi) or four types of understanding through which one can approach realization and hence liberation. They are:
- emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā; Tib. <big> སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་</big>, Wyl. stong pa nyid)
- absence of characteristics or attributes; signlessness (Skt. animitta; Tib.<big> མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པ་</big>, Wyl. mtshan nyid med pa)
- wishlessness; absence of expectancy in terms of result (Skt. apraṇihita; Tib.<big> སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ་</big>, Wyl. smon pa med pa)
- the ultimate emptiness or lack of composition of all phenomena.
In terms of symbolism the four doors of a traditional Tibetan temple are said to symbolize the four gateways to liberation <ref>*Robert Beer, The Handbook of Tibetan Symbols, Serindia Publications.</ref> and act as a reminder that if we want to attain permanent liberation from suffering we need to enter the path that leads to liberation.
References
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Category of Key Terms Category of Enumerations Category of 04-Four
four_gateways_to_liberation.txt · Last modified: 2025/02/01 06:57 by 127.0.0.1