3.2.2. The Six Knots

“The same awareness that sees a colour is the awareness that hears a sound. Only the objects differ, not that which knows them.”

— Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Chapter 5

A single cloth with many knots

There is something curiously tender in how we explore these teachings — as though tiptoeing around a profound secret we have always known, but are only now prepared to remember. In this chapter, I wish to dwell on a subtle metaphor from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, one that gently unravels our certainty about the senses, the mind, and how they all appear so distinct yet emerge from a single, continuous field of knowing.

I invite you, if you have not already, to spend some quiet time with Chapter 5 of this Sūtra. Even if its meaning remains elusive (as it often does at first), let these ideas settle. We are constructing a symbolic and abstract understanding of reality — not to cling to concepts forever, but to build a platform sturdy enough to leap beyond all concepts when the moment comes.

The six knots of perception

As alchemists on this path, we learn of the eight types of consciousness, aligned with the elements: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking, being, and perceiving. Through these we dissect subjective experience and begin to see how many facets together construct the illusion of “being someone.”

Yet the Buddha’s teaching in this Sūtra goes deeper still. Here he employs a metaphor that is at once simple and profound. He takes a single length of cloth and ties a knot in it, then asks his disciple Ānanda what this new shape should be called. Ānanda answers plainly: “a knot.” The Buddha repeats this five more times, each time tying another knot and receiving the same reply. When he then asks if the second knot is the same as the first, Ānanda insists they are different.

The Buddha’s metaphor of the six knots

• The cloth represents the unified field of awareness.
• Each knot is like one of the six senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind).
• Though the shapes (sense objects) differ, the substance remains the same.
• The illusion of separate senses arises from focusing on the knots, not the cloth.

The Buddha then points out that these knots — like our senses — can only be undone from their own centre. Crucially, the substance of each knot is never anything other than the cloth itself.

Seeing through the illusion of divided awareness

Our five senses and the thinking mind often seem to pull us in different directions. I may see a sweet delicacy, imagine its taste, yet think it unwise to indulge — all at once caught between sight, taste, and thought. In truth, most of our inner strife springs from this mistaken sense of division.

The Sūtra urges us to see that despite their seeming differences, it is always the same awareness that sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches, and thinks. The objects of perception are indeed varied — colours differ from sounds, sounds from scents — but the knowing of them arises from a single, undivided awareness.

This is what makes the Buddha’s metaphor so penetrating. Like Ānanda, we habitually insist that the first knot is different from the second. Yet when each knot is untied, what remains is only cloth — unchanged, whole. Likewise, when we see through the divided nature of sense objects, we begin to recognise that our sense faculties are not fundamentally separate, only appearing so because of the varied objects they engage.

A first glimpse into deeper consciousness

For now, it is enough to pause with this. We will later explore how this unified awareness relates to the seventh and eighth consciousnesses, which govern deeper mechanisms of delusion. But before we venture there, we must clearly grasp that the seeing consciousness is no different in essence from that which hears or thinks. Only the objects differ, and by chasing these differences, we remain entangled in saṃsāra’s knots.

Take your time with this. Return to the Śūraṅgama Sūtra when you can — or simply sit quietly and observe how your own senses dance around a single, silent watcher that never changes. The next stages of our work depend on this gentle, living insight.

This text is excerpted from the upcoming book Citrinitas: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete volume will include additional study guides, glossaries, and extended teachings. Learn more about the book here.