★☆☆☆☆ — a single line naming three named immersions
Why this discourse
The fourth path-formulation names the three “liberating” immersions found elsewhere on this site as the vimokkhamukha, the three doorways to liberation: emptiness (suññato, seeing through the absence of a self), the signless (animitto, freedom from the signs the mind ordinarily seizes on), and the undirected (appaṇihito, freedom from wishing or aiming at anything at all).
Reading guide
Three doorways, one entry each
Emptiness, the signless, and the undirected are conventionally described as three separate doorways onto the identical liberation, distinguished only by which feature of experience the meditator's own attention foregrounds on the way in — this discourse itself simply lists the three side by side, offering no further gloss of its own.
A different trio than SN 43.3's own three
Where SN 43.3 graded a single practice (immersion by applied and sustained thought) into three named degrees, this discourse names three genuinely distinct immersions instead — confirming this vagga's own eleven path-formulations are not built to one uniform shape, checked here rather than assumed from the immediately preceding discourse.
Key terms
suññato samādhi — “emptiness immersion” — seeing through the absence of a self, the first of three liberating immersions named here
animitto samādhi — “signless immersion” — freedom from the signs the mind ordinarily seizes on, the second
appaṇihito samādhi — “undirected immersion” — freedom from wishing or aiming at anything at all, the third
asaṅkhatagāmimaggo — “the path that leads to the unconditioned” — the question this discourse opens directly on, as SN 43.3
catutthaṁ — “fourth” — this vagga's own internal count-marker, left untranslated in the root
The text
The complete discourse, as genuinely translated — this vagga's own compressed form. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“And what is the path that leads to the unconditioned? Emptiness immersion; signless immersion; undirected immersion. …”
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Self-check quiz
3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 3
What three immersions does this discourse name?
Correct: A. The three vimokkhamukha, or doorways to liberation, found elsewhere on this site — here simply listed side by side.
Question 2 of 3
How does this discourse's own trio differ in kind from SN 43.3's own three grades?
Correct: A. Confirming this vagga's eleven formulations are not built to one uniform shape.
Question 3 of 3
What does "emptiness immersion" foreground, according to the conventional gloss this reading guide describes?
Correct: A. The first of the three doorways, distinguished from the other two by which feature of experience is foregrounded.
