How to Untie the Six Knots
Ananda put his palms together, prostrated and then said, “Today I have received the Buddha’s most compassionate teaching on the pure, subtle and everlasting Truth, but I still don’t know how to untie the six knots and how to attain the state where ‘Once the six are untied, the one will vanish as well’. I only hope the Buddha will take pity on us again and bestow upon us words of Dharma to clear away our impurities.”
阿難合掌頂禮白佛。我今聞佛無遮大悲，性淨妙常真實法句。心猶未達六解一亡，舒結倫次。惟垂大慈，再愍斯會及與將來，施以法音，洗滌沈垢。
Sitting on the Lion Throne, the Buddha adjusted his clothing and reached over to the teapoy to pick up an exquisite scarf gifted by a god from the Heaven of Self-Restraint. He then tied a knot in the scarf and showed it to Ananda, asking, “What is this?” Ananda and the rest of the assembly all replied, “It is a knot.”
The Buddha then tied another knot and asked again, everyone replied, “It is another knot.” The Buddha tied four more knots and each time asked again what it was, and each time the answer was the same.
“When I first tied the scarf, you called it a knot,” The Buddha said, “but when I tied the second and third, why did you still call them knots? There is actually only one piece of scarf.” Ananda replied: “World Honored One, although there is only one single scarf, when you tie it once, it has one knot; if you tie it hundred times, it has a hundred knots. Now this scarf has six knots, since you only tied it six times. How come we can call the first tie a knot but cannot call the second and third knots?”
The Buddha said, “As you know, originally this precious scarf is a single strip of cloth. Tying it six times might have made six knots, but if you examine more carefully, you will see that in your answers you implied that, although the essential nature of the scarf remains the same, the knots have somehow changed it. The first knot I tied was called the first one, but do you think the sixth knot I tied can also be called the first knot?”
“No, World Honored One. As long as there are six knots, the last one is the sixth and cannot be called the first. Even if I am to spend the rest of my life debating this, nothing would lead me to number these six knots in the wrong order.”
The Buddha said, “It is so. These six knots are all different, you cannot confuse their order, even though they’re created out of one single scarf. The same may be said of your six sense organs – originally they came from the same source, but in eventuality they manifest and function differently. Ananda, now how would you untie the knots, since you seem displeased by them and prefer it to be one single piece of cloth again.”
Ananda said, “As long as these knots remain, concepts of right and wrong will arise and stir – there will be endless arguments about which one is or is not which. If all the knots were untied, there would be no more distinctions – for in the absence of even one, how could there be six?”
The Buddha said, “For the same reason, once the six are untied, the one will vanish too. Since beginningless time, due to the accumulated confusion in your mind, your awareness has become distorted, and the distortions keep getting worse and worse over time. The strain on the awareness disturbs your seeing, causing it to perceive objects in the same way that troubled eyes see dancing flowers in air. Amidst the clarity of enlightened understanding, illusion arises for no good reason. All the worldly phenomena, such as mountains and rivers, birth and death, samsara and nirvana, are all but dancing flowers created by mental unrest and distress.”
即時如來於師子座，整涅槃僧，歛僧伽梨，攬七寶几。引手於几，取劫波羅天所奉華巾。於大眾前綰成一結。示阿難言：此名何等。阿難大眾俱白佛言：此名為結。於是如來綰疊華巾，又成一結。重問阿難。此名何等。阿難大眾，又白佛言：此亦名結。如是倫次綰疊華巾，總成六結。一一結成，皆取手中所成之結，持問阿難，此名何等。阿難大眾，亦復如是次第詶佛，此名為結。佛告阿難。我初綰巾，汝名為結。此疊華巾，先實一條。第二第三，云何汝曹復名為結。阿難白佛言：世尊。此寶疊華緝績成巾，雖本一體。如我思惟，如來一綰，得一結名。若百綰成，終名百結。何況此巾祇有六結。終不至七，亦不停五。云何如來祇許初時。第二第三不名為結。佛告阿難。此寶華巾，汝知此巾元止一條。我六綰時，名有六結。汝審觀察，巾體是同，因結有異。於意云何。初綰結成，名為第一。如是乃至第六結生。吾今欲將第六結名，成第一不。不也，世尊。六結若存，斯第六名，終非第一。縱我歷生盡其明辯，如何令是六結亂名。佛言：如是，六結不同。循顧本因，一巾所造。令其雜亂，終不得成。則汝六根，亦復如是。畢竟同中，生畢竟異。佛告阿難。汝必嫌此六結不成，願樂一成，復云何得。阿難言：此結若存，是非鋒起。於中自生此結非彼，彼結非此。如來今日若總解除。結若不生，則無彼此。尚不名一，六云何成。佛言：六解一亡，亦復如是。由汝無始心性狂亂，知見妄發。發妄不息，勞見發塵。如勞目睛，則有狂華。於湛精明，無因亂起。一切世間山河大地生死涅槃，皆即狂勞顛倒華相。
Ananda asked, “How can one untie these knots created by such unrest and distress then?”
阿難言：此勞同結，云何解除。
The Buddha picked up the knotted scarf, tugged at its left end, and asked, “Can it be untied in this way?” Ananda replied, “No it can’t, World Honored One.” The Buddha then tugged at the right end and asked again, “Can it be untied in this way?” Ananda replied, “No, it can’t, World Honored One.” The Buddha said, “I have tried both ends of the scarf, and the knots can’t be untied either way. What would you do then?”
Ananda replied respectfully to the Buddha, “World Honored One, a knot should be untied within its center.”
The Buddha said, “Exactly. A knot should be untied from its heart. Ananda, the Buddha Dharma manifests due to causes and conditions, but the Dharma is beyond the coarse attributes that arise from worldly concepts of mixtures and unions. As the Buddha explains the mundane and world-transcending phenomena, He knows their fundamental causes and conditions, to the extent that He is perfectly clear about the number of raindrops in a place extremely faraway from here. He understands the fundamental reasons for every sort of phenomenon: why pines are straight, why brambles bend, why geese are white and crows black. Therefore, Ananda, carefully choose one faculty from the six sense organs and work at it. If you can untie the knot of that faculty, all objects of sense will vanish, and all delusion will disappear. Once the false is gone, naturally only the true is left.
“Ananda, now tell me: can we untie the six knots in this scarf all at the same time?”
“No, World Honored One. The knots were tied in sequence, so now they must be untied in sequence. Although the six knots are in the same scarf, they were not tied simultaneously in the first place, so they cannot be untied all at the same time.”
The Buddha said, “The same applies to freeing the knots of the six senses. In the first stage, one will realize that the self is empty. Once the emptiness is fully understood, one becomes free of attachment to phenomena. When one is disengaged from attachment, both self and phenomena will vanish. This is called the Patient Endurance of the Nonbirth, achieved by means of Samādhi in the Bodhisattva stage, in which no mental activities arise, and no mental objects come into being.”
如來以手將所結巾偏掣其左。問阿難言：如是解不。不也，世尊。旋復以手偏牽右邊。又問阿難，如是解不。不也，世尊。佛告阿難。吾今以手左右各牽，竟不能解。汝設方便，云何解成。阿難白佛言：世尊。當於結心解即分散。佛告阿難。如是如是。若欲除結，當於結心。阿難。我說佛法從因緣生。非取世間和合麤相。如來發明世出世法，知其本因隨所緣出。如是乃至恒沙界外一滴之雨，亦知頭數。現前種種松直棘曲鵠白烏玄皆了元由。是故阿難。隨汝心中選擇六根。根結若除，塵相自滅。諸妄銷亡，不真何待。阿難。吾今問汝，此劫波羅巾六結現前，同時解縈，得同除不。不也，世尊。是結本以次第綰生。今日當須次第而解。六結同體，結不同時。則結解時，云何同除。佛言：六根解除，亦復如是。此根初解，先得人空。空性圓明，成法解脫。解脫法已，俱空不生。是名菩薩從三摩地，得無生忍。
Buddha Mind 