Entering the Middle Way, 18 July 1991, part 1

So we should try to broaden our perspective, have a vast perspective, not a narrow one. That is to say, we should include all sentient beings who just like ourselves want happiness and do not want suffering, and to develop a sense of love and compassion, wishing them that they had this happiness, that they were freed from their suffering. Merely this wish that oneself and all sentient beings be free from suffering and have happiness has great benefit. It creates a tremendous amount of creative potential. But merely the wish that oneself and others be free from their suffering and have happiness does not bring that about, in fact.

What is it that we have to do to actualize this our intention of bringing happiness and freeing from suffering? If to that end we can gain an expansive attitude, and out of that expansive attitude involve ourselves in skillful conduct, out of that will come great results. So what is the attitude that we are trying to develop? That in order that sentient beings be free from their suffering and have complete happiness, I myself must eliminate all my various faults and develop all my excellent qualities. So in order to actualize that intention, we must transform it by way of our conduct and make effort into actually eliminating our various faults and bringing to consummation our excellent qualities.

And in order that this actualization process be unerring and unmistaken, we must understand well the methods and the means, that is to say, the path by which this is accomplished. We must understand what is to be adopted and what is to be rejected. For the next few minutes cultivate as our motivation the awakening heart, seeking to implement in unmistaken manner the various methods to bring about within ourselves the elimination of faults and the consummation of excellent qualities. In order to do that, we must understand them. And this we do by means of studying the teachings of the great vehicle and thereby putting them into practice in order to benefit all sentient beings.

Quoting from a verse by Śāntideva in which he says that no matter which of the three vehicles that one might enter into, that of the hearer’s vehicle, the solitary realizer’s vehicle, or the great vehicle, the vehicle of the bodhisattva, that without the view of emptiness there’s no way to achieve each of their enlightenments. One cannot achieve the foe destroyer of a hearer, of a solitary realizer, or that of the great vehicle. There’s no way to abandon the afflictive emotions.

So a foe destroyer or an Arhat is one who has abandoned the afflictive emotions and thereby is freed from cyclic existence. And one who is liberated is referred to as a foe destroyer. And each of the three vehicles has their foe destroyer who has been liberated from cyclic existence, the vehicle of the hearers, solitary realizers, and the great vehicle. And without the understanding of emptiness none of these attainments can be achieved. Do you understand?

Can you hear? Yes, sir. Can you hear? The Buddha said that those who conceive things to truly exist, that things naturally exist, that is to say they have not realized emptiness, are unable to achieve liberation. So it is said that in order to attain liberation, it’s necessary to realize emptiness, and therefore this implies its great importance.

So how are we to realize emptiness? As was previously mentioned, if we understand the three doors to liberation, then we will realize emptiness. Without understanding the three doors of liberation, we will not realize emptiness. So, the three doors of liberation. They represent the entryway into liberation.

Just as in the case of a house, in order to enter into the house one proceeds in by means of going through the door. Without the door there’s no way to get in the house. Likewise, these three doors of liberation represent the entryway into liberation. They’re the method whereby one can be liberated. So, these three doors, the first of these was that door of emptiness, that the entity of all phenomena are empty of true existence.

And the second one is the door of signlessness, that is the signlessness of the true existence of causes. And the third is wishlessness, the non production of truly existent results. So, with respect to the first of these three doors, it refers to all phenomena. Phenomena, and this means everything that exists whatsoever. The word for phenomena in Tibetan is chö, in Sanskrit it is dharma.

So dharma, all phenomena whatsoever. So all phenomena whatsoever, the entity of all phenomena whatsoever is empty of true existence. Everything which exists is empty of true existence. And it’s difficult to comprehend this emptiness of true existence in terms of all phenomena. So it’s more readily understood if we illustrate it by way of example.

Applying the first of these three doors of liberation to the example of a flower. The flower itself, the entity of the flower is non truly existent. Then with respect to the second door, that of signlessness. And the word signlessness might be off putting. So we can simply say, in order to understand it, we apply it to the example of a flower again.

And the flower has a cause, that is to say it is produced from a cause. The flower has such causes as the seed, the water, the fertilizer, etc. The flower is not produced from a truly existent cause. So the non production from a truly existent cause is the signlessness of the door of liberation. The flower is the non production of the flower from a truly existing cause.

Since the cause of a flower is non truly existent, there is no production of a flower from a truly existent cause. So one understands from this that the cause of the flower is non truly existent. And with respect to the third of the three doors, the flower produces a result. The flower acts as a cause producing a result. With respect to the result which is produced by the flower, the result which is being produced, the result is not truly existently produced.

The flower does not produce a truly existent production. So the flower itself, that is the entity of the flower, is non truly existent. The flower is not produced from a truly existent cause. Its cause is non truly existent. And the flower produces a result which is not truly existently produced.

These are three ways of representing emptiness. So this emptiness in this case is being presented from the point of view of the object. Emptiness can also be presented from the point of view of subjects, that is the awareness realizing the emptiness, from the point of view of the wisdom understanding emptiness. So the main interpretation of the three doors of liberation is in terms of the subject, that is the awareness or the three types of wisdoms realizing emptiness. It is under the power of the wisdom realizing emptiness that one is liberated.

By entering, engaging in this wisdom, one is liberated. So in order to attain liberation, it’s necessary that we generate these three realizations of emptiness. If we do not then there’s no way to be liberated just as in the case of in order to get inside one must go through the doorway.

So I wasn’t too satisfied with the way I translated those three, the abbreviated applications of these three doors to the flower, the example of a flower. So just to go through those three again. The entity of the flower itself is not truly existent. A flower is produced by a cause. It is not produced by a truly existent cause.

A flower produces a result. It does not produce a truly existent result. The entity of the flower itself is non truly existent. The flower is produced by a cause, it is produced by a non truly existent cause. The flower produces a result.

It produces a non truly existent result. So in order to generate the three types of wisdoms or awarenesses realizing emptiness, that is in terms of the subjective aspect of the realization of emptiness, one must realize the three objects of these three doors to liberation, these three emptinesses of these three doors of liberation. These are the objects. In order to generate the three types of wisdoms, the subjective aspect, one must realize them.

To realize the three objects of emptiness of the three doors of liberation, it’s necessary to engage in meditation by means of reasoned analysis. And with regards to the process of meditation, as it has been previously mentioned, one relies mainly on the process of reasoning as opposed to relying on merely scripture or scriptural authority. Therefore, since it’s necessary to rely on a process of reasoning, the Entering into the Middle Way sets forth an explanation of the process of reasoning. So in this various process of reasoning, we have previously set forth the first of the five main types of reasonings that we can use for getting at the emptiness as the object of the first door of liberation.

And the first of these reasonings was the reasoning of one or many, and this we said that a flower, that is the entity of the flower, is not truly existent because if it were to be truly existent it would have to be either truly existently one or truly existently many, two or more. And it is not truly existently many and is not truly existently one. Therefore the entity of the flower is not truly existent. For example, if we were to say that there’s no one in this room and we give the reason because there’s not many people in the room, there’s not even one person in the room. By means of the reason there are not many, nor is there even one person in the room, we can come to understand by the force of that there is no one in the room.

So again, an example, there is no money in the purse because there are neither many coins or paper bills in the purse, nor is there even one coin or paper bill in the purse. And from that we can understand that the purse doesn’t have any money. So if we can understand that if the person has neither much money nor even a single denomination of money, it doesn’t have any money. Likewise with respect to the flower. That the flower does not truly exist because if it were to truly exist, it must be truly existent as one or truly existent as many, and it is neither. Therefore, we can understand by that reason it’s not truly existent.

So, then, with the next reason, the second of these five reasons, was the reasoning which establishes the emptiness of cause by means of the reasoning of the four-pronged vajra. And this is the method of proving the second of the three doors of liberation. So the reasoning which establishes the second door of liberation is called the reasoning of production from causes, called the four-pronged vajra, the reasoning of the four-pronged vajra of production.

So this particular type of reasoning is likened to a vajra which has a prong in each of the four directions, a four-pronged vajra. And likewise, this reasoning has four prongs. So the four prongs of this reasoning are the lack of production from self, the lack of production from other, inherently other, naturally other, the lack of production from both self and other, and the lack of production from no cause.