by Hsuan Hua
The earth trembled and moved in six ways at this point because the Buddha was about to proclaim a very important teaching. All the Buddhas of the ten directions came to praise him in a single voice. The quaking also represents the liberation of the six faculties — in the analogy, the release of the six knots. Ānanda has just asked about the source of the six knots and how to untie them, and the Buddha is about to explain the teaching on this point.... Further, Thus-Come Ones as numerous as fine motes of dust emitted lights of various colors to represent the supremacy of the Dharma that the Buddha was about to speak. (IV, 239–40)
Note that it was the light, not the Buddhas themselves, that came to the Jetri Grove. The light from as many Thus-Come Ones as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges and as numerous as fine motes of dust came to shine upon the crown of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s head. This demonstrates that the Path taught by all Buddhas is the same path.... The Buddhas’ lights are mutually interfused, and so are the Buddhas’ minds. The same is true of people’s minds. If you are upset with someone, that person will realize it even if you haven’t said a word. The person may not know it consciously, on the level of his sixth mind-consciousness which makes distinctions, but there is a reaction that occurs in his eighth consciousness.... Therefore, if you want to influence someone to change by means of positive reinforcement, you can think all kinds of good thoughts to influence them, but the process will be gradual. Bit by bit you can cause them to awaken. (IV, 241)
Then Ānanda and all the others in the great assembly heard the numberless Thus-Come Ones from throughout the ten directions speak in one voice, though with different tongues, saying: “Well done, Ānanda! You want to understand the ignorance that you were born with. The source of the knot — what causes you to be bound to the cycle of death and rebirth — is your six faculties of perception, nothing more. Also, since you wish to understand the supreme enlightenment, you should understand that it is through those same six faculties that you can quickly gain bliss, liberation, and stillness, wondrous and everlasting.”
At the same time they all heard the Thus Come Ones speak to Ānanda in unison. Although there were many speakers, the voice was the same. What these Thus-Come Ones had to say here was meant not only for Ānanda but also for you and me and everyone else who is studying the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. This instruction is a very important section of the text. It concerns a crucial point: the matter of death and rebirth. If you understand this section, you can quickly put an end to death and rebirth. If you don’t understand it, you’ll have to redouble your effort to make progress in your study and practice. (IV, 243)
It is because of their six faculties that people keep being deluded in life after life and death after death. Why? The eyes see visible objects and fall under their influence. The ears hear sounds and chase after them. The nose smells fragrances and goes out after them. The tongue tastes flavors and seeks for them. The body is touched and pursues the objects it touches. The mind entertains thoughts and races after them.... That is what causes the problem of death and rebirth. The Buddha said a little earlier in the Sutra, “All you need is not to follow.” Don’t follow the distinction-making mind. Don’t pursue the activities of the six faculties, their six objects, and the six sense-consciousnesses.
The sea of suffering is boundless,
But turn your head and you’ll find the shore.
Turn your head and you’ll find the shore of enlightenment.... Now that you recognize the role of the six faculties, you should not mistake a burglar for your own child. You should not keep spinning around at the portals of the six faculties. (IV, 244–5)
But the Thus-Come Ones also tell Ānanda that the six faculties are the road to enlightenment as well and the permanence, bliss, true self, and purity of nirvana. (IV, 246)
Though Ānanda heard these words of Dharma, he did not understand them. He bowed his head and said respectfully to the Buddha, “How can it be that nothing more than the six faculties binds us to the cycle of death and rebirth while at the same time they cause us to gain wondrous and everlasting bliss?”
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “The faculties and their objects come from the same source. What binds and what unbinds are one and the same. The consciousnesses are by nature illusory, like flowers seen in the sky. In response to objects, Ānanda, there is perception, and in response to the faculties there are objects. Neither the objects nor perceptions of them have an essential nature; they are dependent on each other, like intertwining reeds. Know, therefore, that the establishment of perceived objects such that they exist separately within your awareness is the foundation of ignorance. When objects are not perceived as separate from awareness, that itself is nirvana, which is the true purity, free of outflows. Why would you allow anything else to be added to it?”
Then the World-Honored One, wishing to restate these principles, spoke these verses:
“In our true nature, all conditioned things are seen as empty;
That which arises from conditions is illusory.
That which is unconditioned is not born, nor does it perish;
It too has no reality, like flowers in the sky.
“Though we use words to try to speak the truth, all words are false,
Not only words that aim at truth, but false words — all are false.
Both that which is called ‘true’ and that which is called ‘false’ are false,
How can there be, therefore, observer and what is observed?
“In the perceiver and perceived, there’s nothing that is real;
They are like vines that only stand by twisting round each other.
Entanglement and liberation share a common basis;
The Path of Sages and of common folk is one path only.
“You should consider now these vines that twist around each other.
The vines have no existence, yet they do not lack existence.
The darkness of confusion is our basic ignorance;
The light of understanding brings about our liberation.
“A knot must be untied according to a certain sequence,
And when the six have been untied, the one will vanish too.
Choose one perceiving faculty and realize your breakthrough.
Enter the current. Realize the true enlightenment.
“From subtle ādāna, the storehouse-consciousness,21
The energy of habits can burst forth into a torrent.
Lest you confuse the true with what’s untrue,
I rarely speak of this.
“But when your mind grasps hold of your own mind, what’s not illusion
Then becomes illusory. And if you don’t grasp hold,
Then what is called “illusion” and “what’s not illusion” too
Will not arise. How could what is illusion be established?
“This Dharma may be called the wondrous lotus-flower,
The royal, indestructible, magnificent awakening.
This practice of samāpatti,22 though likened to illusion,
Can quickly bring you past the ones who need no further training.23
“This peerless Dharma is the road that all World-Honored Ones24
Have walked to reach the gateway to nirvana.”
In the third stanza, the Buddha points out that sages and ordinary people do not walk on separate paths.... The difference is that ordinary people turn their backs on enlightenment and cleave to their experience of perceived objects, while the sages turn their backs on perceived objects and become one with enlightenment. Ordinary people are confused, sages have awakened, but the source of both confusion and awakening is the same. (IV, 254)
The Buddha Śākyamuni tells Ānanda to choose one of his faculties and break through to enlightenment. The method for spiritual practice is to work at the entrance to the six faculties. That is, the eyes are not influenced by visible objects, the ears are not influenced by sounds, the nose is not influenced by odors, the tongue is not influenced by flavors, the body is not influe
nced by objects of touch, and the mind is not influenced by objects of cognition. You transform what takes place at the entrance to the six faculties. You reverse the light of your attention to illuminate the mind within. You do not seek outside. You guard and gather in your body and mind. You seek within yourself.
You have to select one of the faculties that will lead you to break through to enlightenment. The Buddha has already laid the groundwork for this. He has discussed the efficacy of each of the faculties and has told Ananda to judge which ones are more complete.... The Buddha has implied that the ear will be the best choice, but he has not yet said it plainly. (IV, 260)
When they had heard this supreme, compassionate instruction which the Buddha, the Thus-Come One, had spoken in this combination of instructional and reiterative verses,25 with their luminous and wondrous truths, lucid and incisive, Ānanda and the others in the great assembly all rejoiced, and their mind’s eye opened to an understanding that was entirely new to them.
The Analogy of the Six Knots
Ānanda put his palms together, bowed to the ground, and said respectfully to the Buddha, “I have heard the Buddha, out of his unbounded compassion, speak these true words of Dharma concerning the purity, wondrousness, and everlastingness of our real nature. But I still do not fully understand the sequence for releasing the knots such that ‘when the six are untied, the one will vanish.’ I only hope that the Buddha will show us great kindness and that, taking pity once again on this assembly and on beings of the future, he will bestow upon us words of Dharma that will cleanse us of impurities.”
The Thus-Come One straightened his inner garment26 and arranged his robe.27 Still sitting in the Lion’s Seat, he reached out onto the table in front of him, which was inlaid with seven kinds of precious things.28 He picked up an elegant presentation scarf29 which had been given to him by a god from the Heaven of Self-Restraint.30 Before the assembly he tied a knot in the scarf, and showing it to Ānanda, he said, “What is this?”
Ānanda and the others respectfully answered, “It is a knot.”
The Thus Come One thereupon tied another knot in his elegantly patterned scarf and again asked Ānanda, “And what is this?”
Ānanda and the others in the assembly again respectfully answered, “It is another knot.”
The Buddha tied a sequence of similar knots in his elegantly patterned scarf until six knots had been tied on top of one other. Each time, as he held up the knot he had just tied, he asked Ānanda, “And what is this?”
Each time Ānanda and the others in the great assembly replied in the same manner: “It is another knot.”
The scarf represents the nature of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One; the six knots represent the six faculties of perception. (V, 4)
The Buddha then said to Ānanda, “The first time that I tied a knot in this elegantly patterned scarf, you said that it was a knot. To begin with, this precious scarf was in fact merely a scarf. Why did you answer a second and a third time, ‘It is another knot’?”
Ānanda said respectfully to the Buddha, “Basically, World-Honored One, this precious, elegantly patterned, and beautifully woven scarf is a single thing, but it seems to me that when the Thus-Come One tied it once, he made what we would call a knot. If he had tied it a hundred times, we would say there were a hundred knots. In fact, there are six knots in the scarf; the Buddha did not tie as many as seven, nor did he stop at five. Why then does the Thus-Come One acknowledge the first knot, but not the second or the third?”
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “You understand that this precious scarf is a single strip of cloth. My tying it six times might be said to have made six knots, but examine the question more carefully. The implication of your answers is that, although the essential nature of the scarf is unchanged, the knots have nevertheless changed it. What do you think? When I first tied a knot in the scarf, you said it was the first knot. I ask you: would you call the sixth knot I tied the first knot?”
The Buddha demonstrates that the nature of the Matrix of the Thus-Come One is fundamentally one.... Though six knots have been made, the fundamental essence of the Matrix is still one. (V, 6)
“No indeed, World-Honored One. Since there are six knots, we certainly cannot say that the sixth knot is the first knot. With all my lives devoted entirely to learning and debate, what would lead me to confuse the sixth knot with the first?”
The Buddha said, “You are right. The six knots are not identical. Let us examine how they were made. They were all created out of the one scarf; still, it would not do to confuse their order. The same may be said of the six faculties of perception. Within what is ultimately one, differentiation eventually arises.”
Originally they were identical, but the eyes function as eyes, the ears function as ears, the nose functions as a nose, the tongue functions as a tongue, the body functions as the body, and the mind functions as the mind. Originally they were one and the same, but now they are divided. Even then, if they worked together, it would be all right. They could all reverse their direction and shine within. The eyes could turn their light inward, the ears could listen within and hear the true nature, the nose would not be influenced by odors, the tongue would not be influenced by flavors, the body would not be influenced by tactile sensations, and the mind would not be influenced by objects of cognition. If they could all work together to shine their light inward, they would still be one. But they can’t work together. The eyes see visible objects and are influenced by them, the ears listen to sounds and are influenced by them, the nose smells odors and is influenced by them, the tongue tastes flavors and is influenced by them, the body enjoys objects of touch and is influenced by them, and the mind grasps objects of cognition and is influenced by them. What is important is to not follow after them, but ordinary people are unable to avoid following after them. (V, 7–8)
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “Suppose you were displeased by the six knots in your scarf and would prefer it to be a single length of cloth. How would you go about untying the knots?”
Ānanda said, “As long as these knots are in the scarf, there will naturally be disagreement about which one of them is which. But if the Thus-Come One were now to untie them all and no further knots were tied, then there would be no question as to which was which, since there would be no first knot left, much less a sixth.”
The Buddha said, “‘When the six are untied, the one will vanish’ is the same idea.31 Since time without beginning, due to your deranged confusion about the nature of your mind, your awareness has become distorted, and these distortions have not ceased. The strain on the awareness generates perceived objects. It is as in the example of your eyes staring until they become so stressed that they see flowers in the sky.32 Amidst the clarity of enlightened understanding, deranged confusion arises for no good reason. The mountains, the rivers, and everything else in this world — as well as the processes of dying and being reborn and of entering into nirvana — are mere derangements caused by stress, mere distortions, mere flowers in the sky.”
“Deranged confusion” refers to the three subtle aspects of delusion: coming into being, evolving, and appearance.33 These are produced by one unenlightened thought; at this point the first knot is tied. “Your awareness becoming distorted” refers to mundane knowledge, which is the first of the coarse aspects of delusion. That “the distortions have not ceased” refers to continuation, the second of the coarse aspects of delusion. The third through sixth knots represent the rest of the coarse aspects of delusion, which are the aspect of grasping, the aspect of clinging to names, the aspect of karma, and the aspect of suffering due to karma. (V, 10–1)
Ānanda asked, “How is untying the knots like releasing the stress?”
The Thus-Come One thereupon picked up the knotted scarf, and having tugged the scarf to its left end, he asked Ānanda, “Is this the way to untie it?”
Ānanda replied, “No, World-Honored One.”
Then, having tugged at the other end of the scarf, the B
uddha again asked Ānanda, “Is that the way to untie it?”
Ānanda again replied, “No, World-Honored One.”
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “I have now tugged on both ends of the scarf, but I was not able to untie the knots that way. How would you untie them?”
Ānanda said respectfully to the Buddha, “World-Honored One, you must pull on the scarf from within each knot. Then they will come undone.”
The Buddha said to Ānanda, “Yes, you are right. If you wish to untie the knot, you pull on the scarf from within each of the knots.
“Ānanda, I have explained that the Dharmas for becoming a Buddha arise through causes and conditions, but these Dharmas are not the coarse attributes that arise from inhering in perceived objects or conjoining to them. The Thus-Come One explains worldly and world-transcending phenomena, and he knows the fundamental causes and the conditions by which these phenomena arise — to the point that he knows how many drops of rain are falling in a world that lies beyond as many other worlds as there are sand-grains in the River Ganges, and near at hand, he understands the fundamental reasons for every sort of phenomenon: why pines are straight, why brambles bend, why geese are white, why crows are black.
“Therefore, Ānanda, carefully choose one faculty of perception from among the six. If you untie the knot of that faculty, its objects will disappear by themselves. All delusion will melt away. How can what remains not be what is real?
The Buddha instructs Ānanda to choose one of the faculties of perception, based on the previous discussion about their relative merits, and then to apply his practice to that faculty until he is free of it and of its objects, as if a knot has been untied. Then all deluded mental activity based on coming into being and perishing will cease to be. What is it like when all our deluded mental activity is gone? When the false is gone, all that is left is the true. The true will be all that is. Stop the mind that is dependent of perceived objects, and the nature of the wondrous suchness of reality will appear....
