View source for 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: Key Terms]]
[[Category: Enumerations]]
[[Category: 04-Four]]