SN 7.6
Jata Sutta: The Tangle
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
At Savatthi. Then the
brahman Jata[1] Bharadvaja
went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged courteous
greetings with him. After this exchange of friendly greetings &
courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there he
addressed the Blessed One with a verse:
A tangle
within,
a tangle
without,
people are
entangled
in a tangle.
Gotama, I ask you
this:
who
can untangle this tangle?
[The Buddha:]
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.
When this was said, the brahman Jata Bharadvaja said to the
Blessed One, "Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent! Just as if
he were to place upright what was overturned, to reveal what was
hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp
into the dark so that those with eyes could see forms, in the same
way has Master Gotama — through many lines of reasoning — made the
Dhamma clear. I go to the Blessed One for refuge, to the Dhamma,
& to the community of monks. Let me obtain the going forth in
Master Gotama's presence, let me obtain admission."
Then the brahman Jata Bharadvaja
received the going forth & the admission in the Blessed One's
presence. And not long after
his admission — dwelling alone, secluded, heedful, ardent, &
resolute — he in no long time reached & remained in the supreme
goal of the holy life, for which clansmen rightly go forth from
home into homelessness, knowing & realizing it for himself in
the here & now. He knew: "Birth is ended, the holy life
fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for the sake of
this world." And so Ven. Bharadvaja became another one of the
arahants.
One will find the above quotes
from this Sutta in the opening chapter of the Visudhi-magga on the
Purification of Virtue. ‘Tangle’ is referred here to the network of
craving in us.