མཚན་མ་མ་མཆིས་པ། | Glossary of Terms

The ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects. One of the three gateways to liberation; the other two are emptiness and wishlessness.

Second of the three gateways to liberation.

The second of the three doorways to liberation. The other two are emptiness (śūnyatā; stong pa nyid) and wishlessness (apraṇihita; smon pa med pa).

One of the three doors of liberation.

The absence of the conceptual identification of perceptions. One of the three doors of liberation.

Meditative concentration which views the five aggregates, the basis for the conception of a self, as faulty; the second of the three doors of liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gates of liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation; the ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects.

One of the three gateways to liberation; the ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects.

In ultimate reality, there is no sign, as a sign signals or signifies something to someone and hence is inextricably involved with the relative world. We are so conditioned by signs that they seem to speak to us as if they had a voice of their own. The letter “A” seems to pronounce itself to us as we see it, and the stop-sign fairly shouts at us. However, the configuration of two slanted lines with a crossbar has in itself nothing whatsoever to do with the phenomenon made with the mouth and throat in the open position, when expulsion of breath makes the vocal cords resonate “ah.” By extending such analysis to all signs, we may get an inkling of what is meant by “signlessness,” which is essentially equivalent to voidness, and to “wishlessness” (see entry). Voidness, signlessness, and wishlessness form the “Three Doors of Liberation.”

One of the three gateways of liberation: emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness.

One of the three gateways to liberation; the ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects.

One of the three gateways to liberation; the ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects.

Second of the three gates to liberation, the first being emptiness and the third wishlessness.

The ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects. One of the three gateways to liberation; the other two are emptiness and wishlessness.

One of the three terms associated with the nature of reality in the context of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation, it is the ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects.

The ultimate absence of marks and signs in perceived objects; one of the three gateways of liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation.

One of the three gateways of liberation.

The absence of the conceptual identification of perceptions, knowing that the true nature has no attributes, such as color or shape. One of the three gateways of liberation.

The absence of the conceptual identification of perceptions. Knowing that the true nature has no attributes, such as color, shape, etc. One of the three doorways to liberation.

The absence of the conceptual identification of perceptions. Knowing that the true nature has no attributes, such as color, shape, etc. One of the three doorways to liberation.

One of the three gateways to liberation along with emptiness and absence of wishes.

One of the three gates of liberation along with emptiness and wishlessness.

See glossary entry for “absence of marks.”

Also translated here as “without mental images.”

Emptiness (stong pa nyid), signlessness (mtshan ma med pa), and wishlessness (smon pa med pa) are known as the “three doors to deliverance” (triṇi­vimokṣa­mukhāni) or the “three concentrations” (trayaḥ samādhyaḥ) and as a set appear in both mainstream Buddhist sūtras and Mahāyāna sūtras. See Conze 1962, pp. 59–69; Lamotte 1944, pp. 1213–15; and Deleanu 2000, pp. 74–78.