20 Feb Koan 6

What is a gateless gate?

“The Gateless Gate” is a 13th century compilation of 48 koans. The koans are meant to guide the Way to awakening and enlightenment. The Gate is what separates us from enlightenment.

The title itself is a koan, a nonsensical paradox: how can a gate be gateless?

A gate implies separation. The Gateless Gate separates who we think we are (the self) and enlightenment (what we are is the Everything).

However, the Gate is an illusion, as the Gate is gateless. That is, but for the self, we are enlightened.

The Gate is a creation of the self. The Gate is the perception that we are separate from all that is not the self. Separation creates duality, the antithesis of enlightenment.

Enlightenment dispels the illusory Gate which in turn dispels duality. What remains is our oneness with the Everything.

The book explains its title: “The Great Way has no Gate. A thousand roads enter it. When one passes through this Gateless Gate, he freely walks between heaven and earth.”

“The Great Way” is the Way to liberation (awakening and enlightenment) from our mind’s prison, the self. The mind creates descriptions, generalizations and stories that frame our experiences of the now, precluding us from experiencing the now as it is. The frame is the Gate.

Liberation dispenses with the Gate as we realize the Gate is an illusion of our mind’s creation. The illusion is conceptual dualities of yin and yang, the mundane and the divine, the self and the other, subject and object, good and bad.

Enlightenment is the realization that conceptual dualities are illusions. All things are interdependent and interconnected. All things are but one thing, the Everything.

“A thousand roads enter it” suggests there are numerous approaches or paths that can potentially lead to enlightenment. Individuals have unique dispositions which resonate with different teachings, practices and roles in life.

“When one passes through this Gateless Gate, he freely walks between heaven and earth” means that upon liberation one can move freely between dualistic concepts and directly experience the interconnectedness and oneness of the Everything.

The Great Way leads us to enlightenment: the realization that we are the Everything. It is characterized by wisdom and compassion. As the Everything, we can view the universe from infinite perspectives which is the essence of wisdom. Moreover, we treat every thing as we treat ourselves (compassion), for we are the Everything.