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The Flower Contains Everything
Teachings on Ānāpānasati and the Three Doors of Liberation
Thầy focuses on the systematic exercises of mindful breathing from the Ānāpānasati Sutta, detailing how to transition from the body, to feelings, and into the mind, by identifying the breath, generating joy, and tenderly embracing painful mental formations for “transformation at the base.”
He then explores the core Mahāyāna concentrations known as the Three Doors of Liberation: Emptiness (śūnyatā), Signlessness (animitta), and Aimlessness (aprāṇihita). Thầy emphasizes that emptiness does not mean non-existence, using the analogy of a glass that is empty of tea but simultaneously full of air. To be empty means to be empty of a separate self; instead, everything is interconnected. A flower, for instance, is full of non-flower elements like clouds, sunshine, and the earth, beautifully illustrating the concept of interbeing where there is no dualistic separation between the actor and the action.
Using the example of the flame, Thầy illuminates the nature of no coming, no going, no sameness, and no otherness. He strikes a match to show how a flame does not come from anywhere, nor pass from “non-being into being,” but simply manifests when conditions are sufficient, and ceases to manifest when conditions are no longer sufficient. Like a wave realizing it is water, touching this ultimate nature eliminates all fear of birth and death.
Thầy illustrates this ultimate “cream of the Buddhist teaching” through the story of the dying businessman Anāthapiṇḍika, who was liberated from his terminal physical pain and fear of death through a guided meditation on no-coming and no-going led by the Venerable Śāriputra.
This is the final talk in a series of five given during the Awakening the Heart retreat in the year 2011. Thầy offered this talk at the War Memorial Gym of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Part of the following collection
The First Door of Liberation: Emptiness