Four gateways to liberation: Difference between revisions
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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 methods through which one can approach realization. They are: | 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 methods through which one can approach realization. They are: | ||
# emptiness (Skt. ''śūnyatā''; Tib. <big> | # 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'') | #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'') | #wishlessness; absence of expectancy in terms of result (Skt. ''apraṇihita''; Tib.<big> སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།</big>, Wyl. ''smon pa med pa'') |
Revision as of 09:17, 14 June 2011
According to Sutra there are three gateways to liberation, whereas according to Vajrayana there are four gateways (Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཐར་པའི་སྒོ་བཞི།, Wyl. rnam par thar pa’i sgo bzhi) or methods through which one can approach realization. They are:
- emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā; Tib. སྟོང་པ་ཉིད།, Wyl. stong pa nyid)
- absence of characteristics or attributes; signlessness (Skt. animitta; Tib. མཚན་ཉིད་མེད་པ།, Wyl. mtshan nyid med pa)
- wishlessness; absence of expectancy in terms of result (Skt. apraṇihita; Tib. སྨོན་པ་མེད་པ།, 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 [1] 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
- ↑ *Robert Beer, The Handbook of Tibetan Symbols, Serindia Publications.