Who can untangle this tangle?

Through many a year in this life,
we have been making a larger and larger tangle.

In the Jaṭā Sutta SN 7.6, the brahman Jata Bharadvaja asked the Blessed One a pertinent question ..

‘A tangle within, a tangle without,
people are entangled in a tangle.
Gotama, I ask you this:
who can untangle this tangle?’

The Buddha’s response ..

‘A man established in virtue, discerning,
developing discernment & mind,
a monk ardent, astute:
he can untangle this tangle.

Those whose passion, aversion, & ignorance
have faded away, arahants,
their effluents ended:
for them the tangle’s untangled.

Where name-&-form,
along with perception of impingement & form,
totally stop without trace:
that’s where the tangle is cut.’

Read the Sutta in full here ..
www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn07/sn07.006.than.html 

Who can untangle this tangle?

Contemplation on
‘Untangling the Tangle’
by Christina Feldman
at this link ..
http://seattleinsight.org/Talks/Browse-Series/Series/SeriesID/59

About Christina Feldman:
Christina Feldman is a co-founder and guiding teacher of Gaia House in England (www.gaiahouse.co.uk), and has been leading Insight Meditation retreats since 1976. She is a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. As well as teaching retreats worldwide, she is committed to the Personal Retreat Programme at Gaia House. She is the author of a number of books including Woman Awake and The Way of Meditation, and is co-author of Soul Food. Her most recent books are Silence and The Buddhist Path to Simplicity.
- Source : http://seattleinsight.org/Teachers/Teacher/TeacherID/11

More on the Sutta here ..
http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/50.22-Jata-Suttas-S-s1.23-s7.6-piya.pdf

If you thought the tangles we make in this life is troublesome enough, we need to reflect on the tangles we make over our blind wondering in timeless samsara.

The Buddha’s reflection on untangling his tangles ..

‘Through many a birth in samsara
have I wandered in vain,
seeking the builder of this house (of life).
Repeated birth is indeed suffering!

O house-builder, you are seen!
You will not build this house again.
For your rafters are broken and
your ridgepole shattered.
My mind has reached the Unconditioned;
I have attained the destruction of craving.’

- Dhammapada Verse 153 & 154

- Posted by CFFong