I recently listened again to the retreat Death: Friend or Foe. In the first session, Ken speaks of three doors in practice: impermanence, compassion, and devotion. For me, they trace a journey that unfolded almost by accident.
The truth of impermanence began to sink in after my first encounters with Buddhist teachings and reflections like the four thoughts that turn the mind. The early death of a close friend gave that recognition a more visceral meaning.
Years later, while volunteering as a life story writer for hospice patients, I discovered—unexpectedly—that I could simply be present. Compassion, as Ken describes it, is not sentiment but a clear seeing that connects us directly to the human condition. That capacity to stay open in the face of another’s suffering began to take root.
Devotion, though, remained a mystery. I found the Tibetan emphasis on devotion hard to relate to, as if it were a foreign language I could never learn. Yet over time, without effort or intention, something has shifted. What once felt inaccessible has emerged as a quiet, unbidden longing—a deep opening of the heart.
Now I see how these three doors—impermanence, compassion, and devotion—are not separate entrances but connected rooms in the same house. Each opens into the next, revealing the same space of knowing.
When I was in the three-year retreat, we learned probably 150 different meditation practices. I’ve never gone through and actually counted them. But I remember very distinctly reading a small section at the end of one book that was full of quite advanced practices. And there’s a series of quotations from different teachers in this particular tradition—the Shangpa tradition—and one of them has just stayed with me, really made an impression. It’s by a person called Kyergongpa Chökyi Senge, who lived in the 12th century in Tibet. And this is not an exact quote, but it's to the effect that there are three doors in practice. One is death and impermanence, the second door is compassion, and the third door is devotion/insight. They end up being the same door. And then he said a little bit about each one of those. And I found that, over the years, to be very true. If you look in the Theravadan texts, they explain that death and impermanence is the door for certain kinds of people and compassion is the door for other kinds of people, and devotion is the door for other kinds of people.
Related posts:
On Samadhi
Profound Radiance: A Guided Meditation