“A tangle inside, a tangle outside,
This generation is entangled in a tangle.
I ask you this, O Gotama,
Who can disentangle this tangle?”“A man established on virtue, wise,
Developing the mind and wisdom,
A bhikkhu ardent and discreet:
He can disentangle this tangle.“Those for whom lust and hatred
Along with ignorance have been expunged,
The arahants with taints destroyed:
For them the tangle is disentangled.“Where name-and-form ceases,
Stops without remainder,
And also impingement and perception of form:
It is here this tangle is cut.”
sn.1.23 Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses)
Tangle
- Translator: Bhikkhu Bodhi
- Editor: Blake Walsh
A Tangle
“Tangled within, tangled without:these people are tangled in tangles.
I ask you this, Gotama:
who can untangle this tangle?”
“A wise person grounded in ethics,
developing the mind and wisdom,
a keen and alert mendicant—
they can untangle this tangle.
Those in whom greed, hate, and ignorance
have faded away;
the perfected ones with defilements ended—
they have untangled the tangle.
And where name and form
cease with nothing left over;
as well as impingement and perception of form:
it’s there that the tangle is cut.”