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Talk Notes
Stepping through the Three Doors of Liberation
For August 5th, 2026
Dear friends,
Tonight I’d like to continue with more foundational teachings of the Buddha. As I said last week, I feel like the Three Dharma Seals of Impermanence, No-self, and Nirvana/Suffering are tied to these teachings tonight. If you didn’t have a chance to hear the first talk, and you would like to, you can listen to it from our website or on YouTube (under Red Cedar Zen Community)–as with all of our talks.
And, as I said last week, these teachings are an invitation to explore for yourself–as the Buddha encouraged. They are not things to “believe in” but rather tools to use to look deeply into the workings of our minds and a way to touch what is beyond our perceived notions as human beings.
The first talk, I entitled, Uncovering the Three Dharma Seals. Tonight’s talk, I entitled, “Stepping through the Three Doors of Liberation.” These teachings are always available; we only need to have a willingness to explore them, to uncover their true meaning.
Last week I talked about the two truths. I want to just mention this again, because it is very helpful to realize that sometimes teachings are offered through the realm of the conditioned, the historic, relative world, and sometimes teachings are pointing to the ultimate reality, the unconditioned, the absolute realm.
When the Buddha gave the Five Remembrances–we are of a nature to grow old, to have ill health, to be separated from ones we love and to at some point, die, he was speaking about the nature of things in this historic world, this conditioned world. Thich Nhat Hanh says that the Buddha wanted us to get used to the reality of this, to make friends with our fears around these truths of living in this world. When Avalokiteshvera was speaking in the Heart Sutra about no birth and no death, she was referring then to a deeper reality in the absolute, the unconditioned realm. They are both true, and in fact, never apart. We are always in touch with both of these realities, but we usually don’t realize it, because we are living through our perceptions and notions about how things are. Our mission–if we decide to accept it (!) is to more easily touch the ultimate realm, right now, in this moment. It is a realm of no coming and no going, no after and before. It is a realm free from our thoughts, ideas and notions.
The three doors of liberation include “emptiness” (shunyata in Pali), “signlessness” (animitta), and “aimlessness” (apranihita.)
The first door is emptiness. The first time we hear of “emptiness,” it may create a confused or negative reaction in us. Emptiness sounds a lot like nothingness. Similarly, last week, I spoke of no-self and that also, may bring up an idea of “nothingness.” In fact, both no-self and emptiness are truly words to express how things are in the ultimate realm.
As Thich Nhat Hanh explains, “to be empty means to be empty of something.” For example, when you say a cup is empty, it may be empty of water, or tea, but it is full of other molecules that make up our air. So, when we hear that something is “empty,” we have to ask, “empty of what?” And, the answer is, empty of a separate self. This also means full of everything else. We are full of everything and “empty” of a separate, independent self.
Last week I spoke of how I discovered that the red blood cells in me…were me. If I were to start taking this me apart, it would be never-ending…things on “the inside”--red blood cells and the iron in each of them, the bacteria, the organs…what about things from the outside?...the food, the tea, the water, the air? When does “food” stop being “food” and start becoming me?? When we see that if it were possible to remove all of these components in me–there would be nothing left…of me! Being empty of a separate self truly allows for the possibility of change. It allows movement and flow; we are not stagnant entities. Change and transformation are possible in this lifetime because we are not fixed objects.
So, emptiness in Buddhist teachings means empty of a separate self. It does not mean “nothing.” Everything without exception is like this. Everything is interconnected and interdependent. If we think we can survive “on our own” we are not understanding who we really are. We are truly supported by all things and the reverse is true also; we support all things.
Any comments?
In the Diamond Sutra, we are taught that a human being is not independent of other sentient and non-sentient beings. In order to take care of ourselves–we have to also take care of non-human species. I think we see how we are struggling with this right now, with so much of our world out of balance.
The second door of liberation is the door of “signlessness.” This refers to the recognition that we, as human beings, like to conceptualize and label everything. When we see something, our brain labels it; a “sign” or image is formed. Often, if it is something we’ve encountered before, we don’t even really look at it, we don’t really even see it–unless our brain defines it as important. We skip over it, thinking that we already know what it is. We categorize it and make assumptions about it. We develop notions about it. We give it a common name…and then we often give it a full “scientific name” as if this makes us more correct in knowing “what it is.” For instance, I may see a yellow and black and green object in the garden. Oh, it’s a “sunflower”–I “know” its name! More precisely, I even “know” that it is a Helianthus annuus, belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae!
Ofcourse, I’m not saying that we don’t need “signs” to live, to function, in our world, to live in our society. For instance, they are often needed for order and for safety–for example, a stop sign or another traffic signal. But, our world is so full of signs that we often don’t recognize the forms themselves, before they are labeled as a “sunflowers, for instance.” We “determine” the value of something by how we–as humans/ cultures define it. What about something labeled, “a weed?” Instantly this brings a “judgement” to mind–and good vs bad; even a worthy to exist or not, thought. Truly this is a totally created term for a living plant that originally has no “label.” Things in our world are determined to be useful or not useful, good or not good, desired or not desired, etc. It is valuable to recognize these “signs” and recognize what is obscured by them. It is helpful to develop awareness around how much of our society and world are quickly judged by our brain, and categorized. We live with a lot of “notions” about everything. Thich Nhat Hanh says that until we can break through “signs”, we cannot touch reality, we cannot touch what is underneath our signs. He says that it is a great relief to break through the barriers of signs and touch the world of the signess; which is nirvana.
The Diamond Sutra (the full name of the sutra is “The Diamond that cuts through Illusion”) encourages us to see through four notions we’ve created; four notions that we take as real.
They are the sign of self, human, living being, and lifespan.
We’ve already talked about the sign of “self.” We think there are things that are “self” and are “not self.” But as we’ve explored, in reality, there are no true boundaries, we see that we have no independent, separate self.
We also get caught in the sign of “person, or human-being.” We separate humans from other forms, both animate and inanimate. What this separation causes and justifies so often then, is a path for exploitation. We are justified in using things–for our benefit–because they are “not-human.” As we talked about earlier, when we look deeply, we can see that everything we do whether it’s to other species, or to the earth, directly affects all of us, whether we see it or not. Our use of plastics and pesticides, for instance, are in us–and in other species all over the earth now; there is no way to keep “separate” from them.
Even the sign of “living being” is not separate from insentient beings. We know that so many things that make up this body are insentient. The many minerals that make up my blood and tissues are totally interconnected and integrated into my cells and bones and blood. If they weren’t here, I wouldn’t be here either.
Lastly, we think of a “life span.” We think that we have a period of time between being born and dying. We’re alive, as a separate self, for a specific time with a beginning and end. But when we see that everything in our body is in the process of being born, living and dying, and nothing is truly lost; everything is still here, in the present moment–when we see this, we can let go of some of the fear of “ending.”
The other day, I heard part of a podcast playing; the speaker was quoting someone saying that “old-age is a disease…a number one priority with science and technology should be to eliminate old age and allow us to live “productive lives” for much longer. Do these statements fit into the 4 notions we so often take as reality from the Diamond Sutra? Comment?
For me, these statements reflect the identifying with “human being”–and having a beginning and end–”life span.” They are for me, so human-and self-centric–a world view based on everything revolving around me and human beings.
I always remember Thich Nhat Hanh’s answer to a child’s question: “Do you remember any of your past lives?”
“Yes. When I practice looking deeply, I see that at one time in the past, I was a rock, a tree, a squirrel, a bird, a fish, a cloud, and a river. If I continue to look deeply, I see that I am still a rock, a cloud, a mountain, a river and a squirrel; I continue to be them. I have been all of these beings and so have you. We continue to be all of them. They are still in us. We inter-are with them.”
Lastly, I want to look at “aimlessness.” Here is another word that may cause some confusion and/or resistance. The dictionary’s definition of “aimless” is “lacking a clear purpose or goal, or direction.” I think in our society, we’ve added on a “sign” to this, if you will, a negative connotation of being lazy without a goal of achieving, “making something of your life!”
In Buddhist context, “aimlessness” is referring to letting go of “achieving,” letting go of pushing towards getting something in the future; letting go of the constant striving “for one more thing.” It is an understanding that we already have–and are–everything we need. Master Dogen encourages “practice-realization” meaning that our reason for practicing is a means of uncovering what is already here, instead of going from “point a to point b” to “get something.” We are already Buddha Nature; we just don’t realize it–because of all of these notions and concepts we’ve discussed.
There is a lot in Buddhist literature about letting go of the desire to obtain something. Letting go of the notion that tells us, “if only I get that college degree, then I’ll rest easy…If only I can make X amount of money, then I’ll be happy…” Of course, the desire for things in the future is endless. Even the desire for small things, “oh, I’ve GOT to get that new toy!--Of course we’ve all been there.
I can’t remember now who I was watching, but he was describing how badly he wanted a new train he saw in the window many years ago. If only he had that new train–he would be happy for the rest of his life! He promised his mom that if only he had that, he would never ask for anything else ever again! And, he got it!! And, you know how the rest of the story goes…he couldn’t stop playing with it!--for a day or two…and then, little by little…it got noticed less and less…until…the desire for it faded away. This happens over and over–and! How easy it is to tell ourselves “this time is different! This thing is different!” As we pay attention to desire and craving, we can predict ahead, a little more quickly how everything is impermanent. But it is not easy to understand that all things are like that.
Aimlessness is about the ability to stop. (Shamantha in Pali.) Thich Nhat Hanh says that Buddhist meditation has two aspects–shamantha and vipassana (looking deeply.) They bring us insight and liberate us from suffering and afflictions. But, he says that the practice of “stopping” is fundamental. “If we cannot stop, we cannot have insight.”
“We have to learn the art of stopping–stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us.” This doesn’t mean getting rid of things; it simply means to allow. To give space. To take a breath. It gives us time to bring our mindfulness back into the present moment.
Truly, there is no place for transformation but here in the present moment.
Everything is here and now. If we ignore this moment in pursuit of the future or regrets about the past, we are giving up our possibility of transformation. This is why when we sit, we have a stronger possibility of being present, being in the here and now. Over time, this becomes a path that we can settle into easier. And, we can carry this presence to our walking, to our drinking tea, to our cleaning the kitchen, etc. These activities will all become more alive with our presence.
So, that is “the Three Doors of Liberation” in a nutshell! The topics we discussed last week–impermanence, no-self, and suffering–and the liberation from suffering, can help us if we want to explore these Three Doors of Liberation.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these two talks. This evening, I do want us to break into triads. Pick out something that I said tonight that resonates with you; something that informs your own practice currently. Discuss it with your partners. Then, if we have time, we can comment with the group. Thanks so much for participating in these talks.
