Tao 12 Markers #9: The Three Gates to the Tao

It has been said that approximately one hundred billion people have come to Earth and lived and died throughout humankind’s history. Why are humans born on this earth? As one of over one hundred billion visitors to Earth, what is your life’s meaning? If you wish to become enlightened to the meaning of life and thus reach the Tao, there are three gates of enlightenment through which you must pass sequentially.

First Gate

At birth, our soul is confined to the prison of the physical body and charged to care for its needs: hunger, warmth, sleep, and cleanliness, not to mention education and finding a partner. And that’s just the beginning. Innumerable illnesses lurk around every corner; with the least bit of neglect, the physical body indicates its displeasure and throws a fit. From morning until night, physical needs dominate until, before you know it, life has passed you by.

Besides the pain of the physical body, there is also psychological pain. People spend their entire lives stressed from competition for survival and suffer doubt, fear, and loneliness. Then there is stress from the external environment – air and noise pollution, water shortages, agricultural pollution, natural disasters, and wars.

The final destination for this train called life that rushes along, tossing and turning us every which way, is none other than “death.” There are no exceptions. Human beings are like fish living inside of a net called death from which there is no possible escape.

With this first awakening, that “Life is suffering,” we begin to realize the futility of a life rooted in the physical body and we start to search for something to alleviate the pain.

Second Gate

The second awakening of life is that “Everything that exists, changes.” This is called “transience.” It means there is nothing that does not change. Look back on your life. There was a time when you crawled around with a runny nose and a time when you were young with many dreams. But time passes, and one day you’ll look at yourself and suddenly see how much you’ve aged. When ten, twenty, or fifty years have passed, how will you have changed? Will you still exist in the world just the same? Life is transient. At some point, everyone leaves. That’s life.

Humans change, society changes, and so does nature. The earth is never still, even for a moment. The same is true for the moon, the sun, and the universe. All things in the universe are constantly moving and changing. In this way, from human beings to nature in the universe, there is nothing that withstands change. “Transience” is the most universal phenomenon. To put it more precisely, change is existence.

When you know that everything that exists also changes, even objects of attachment disappear. When you become enlightened to transience, you can cast off attachment and become free from the pain it causes.

However, even awakening to the transient nature of existence is not a complete enlightenment. Everything that exists, changes. Therefore, there is nothing to be attached to. Then, what comes after that? Who am I? What am I? The fundamental question of human identity still remains.

Third Gate

Finding the answer to the question, “Who am I?” is the key to opening the third gate.

First, find what information is the greatest obstacle to your enlightenment. That would be none other than your “name.” The information of the “I” that has a name is the “ego.” The belief that your name is you and that your body, emotions, and information are you is akin to being in a state of hypnosis. The clear truth is that even before you had a name you existed. If your name disappeared, you would still exist. The moment you remove your name, you can return to the natural state that existed originally, beyond your name.

The third enlightenment necessary to reach the Tao involves knowing “Mu-ah,” or “nothingness.” “Mu” means “absence” and “ah” means “self.” It means “I do not exist.” “Mu” speaks of a state that exists before there was a concept of “presence,” or “absence.” This is called “absolute nothingness.”

Absolute nothingness is like an empty but full space filled with the vital energy of the universe and embracing everything that exists in the world. The infinitely great life energy that exists in and of itself by the laws of the cosmic energy is “mu” —and this is your actual essence.

— from a message by Ilchi Lee