Thầy delves deeply into the teaching of the Three Doors of Liberation which is woven throughout the Diamond Sutra, the Sutra on a Better Way to Catch a Snake, the Lotus Sutra, and other Mahāyāna texts.

He begins by preparing us for the profound lesson that follows with short teachings on impermanence and suffering. He says that when we are aware that everything is impermanent, every door is opened for change and from this opening healing can arise. He says that suffering is not inherent in things; it arises from our attitude, our grasping, our ignorance, our habit energy, our misunderstanding of reality.

Now we are ready for his teaching on the Three Doors of Liberation.

1. Door of Signlessness
   Our perception of self, Buddha, or any object is merely a sign or mark, a construction of our mind, a notion. Thầy invites us to transcend the four notions—self, man, living being, lifespan—so that we can realize the one in the many. Because, according to the Buddha, where there’s a sign, there is deception, in order to touch reality and see the Tathāgata, Thầy says, “…we must learn the art of handling and finally ‘killing’ our notions—however useful they may seem—to free ourselves from their trap.” We cannot grasp the highest wisdom by our notions, so the practice is to see things as they are instead of our perception of things. Thầy acknowledges that it is difficult for us to accept that we can’t understand the Dharma using our notions.

2. Door of Emptiness
   “Emptiness means interbeing of everything.” Everything is empty, but empty of what? Empty of a separate existence. A sheet of paper is empty of a separate existence because it can’t exist by itself; it has to inter-be with every other thing: “non-paper elements like trees, sunshine, rain, soil, minerals, time, space, and consciousness.” The sheet of paper—the flower, the government leader, each of us—everything is empty of a separate self because it contains the whole cosmos. The Buddha said, “…if a person is afraid of the doctrine of emptiness, I say he is crazy and has lost his mind. Why do I say so? Because he is always in emptiness, and yet he is afraid of it. Because emptiness is also empty.” The emptiness of emptiness.

3. Door of Wishlessness (Aimlessness)
   There is nothing to attain, nothing to run after. We don’t need anything more to be happy. Thầy says, “You are already what you seek—nirvāṇa and buddhahood are here and now when seen without grasping.” There are two dimensions of life: the ultimate dimension and the historical dimension. In the historical dimension there are things to be done, people to help; in the ultimate dimension since everything is already perfect, there is nothing to be done. The Lotus Sutra says that the two dimensions are empty of a separate self, are both one. Thầy adds, “When we practice, we aspire to reach nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is the blessed rest, the happy place we want to come. But according to the teaching, nirvāṇa is already there. You have been nirvanized from the very non-beginning.”

Thầy encourages us to apply the Three Doors of Liberation to the practice of the six pāramitās: generosity, precepts, patience, energy, dhyāna, and understanding. We should walk the Middle Way, free from extremes like permanence and impermanence; self and non-self; existence and non-existence, and look deeply to uncover the true nature of interbeing and liberation. Only the Middle Way that is free from extremes will allow us to touch reality as it is.

To encourage us in our practice of the Three Doors of Liberation, Thầy says, “You—as a bodhisattva—if you find that you have a lot of suffering, confusion, defilements, don’t be afraid. You can make very good use of these sufferings, confusion, afflictions. You are going to grow a flower out of it.”

Thầy ends his Dharma talk with an invitation to burn the handouts of the readings he has provided that were the source of his talk. Like the wonderful Zen Master he is, Thầy says, “If you feel that you understand the meaning of the sūtra, I think we can burn these two pages—to prove that you are free. [Thay holds up a box of matches.] You might burn them with these, you might burn them in other ways. It depends on your faith. But you have to burn them.”

This is the sixth talk in a series of thirteen giving during the Looking Deeply in the Mahāyāna Tradition, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 1992. Thầy offered this talk at the Lower Hamlet, Plum Village, France.

These teachings later appear in the book Cultivating the Mind of Love.