Throwback Thursday: Untangling the Tangle

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Re-post of an entry from March 2013:

A while back I highlighted some of the keywords, search terms and queries that cause people to stumble upon The Endless Further. I know that most of those folks probably found what they were looking for, either here or elsewhere, but it’s interesting to discuss them anyway. Here’s another one:

“what does it mean to untangle the tangle buddhaghosa”

“Untangle the tangle” is a well-known phrase found in the the Jata Sutta (“Samyutta Nikaya”, Chapter 7, Sutta 6). Buddhaghosa was the Indian Buddhist scholar who stands out as the pre-eminent commentator on Theravada understanding. His Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, believed written in Ceylon in the beginning of the fifth century CE, is a comprehensive study of Buddhist doctrine and meditation technique. In his introduction to this work, Buddhaghosa quotes, and then comments on the Jata Sutta passage:

The sutta tells how a Brahman named Jata (“Tangle”) Bharadvaja visiting the Buddha at Savatthi posed  this question :

‘Tangle within, tangle without,
Sentient things are entangled in a tangle.
And I would ask of you, Gotama, this:
Who can untangle this tangle?’

Buddhaghosa comments:

By ‘tangle” is meant the net of craving. For craving is like the tangle of the network of branches of bamboo-bushes and the like, in the sense of an intertwining, because it arises again and again, repeatedly in connection with such objects as visible things. And it is said to be a ‘tangle within and a tangle without,’ because it arises as craving for one’s own needs and others’, for one’s own person and others’, and for consciousness subjective and objective. Sentient beings are entangled in such a tangle. Just as bamboos and the like are entangled by such tangles as bamboo-bushes, so all living beings, are entangled, enmeshed, embroiled, in that tangle of craving, this is the meaning.

And because of such entanglement, the meaning of, ‘I would ask of you, Gotama, this,’ is to be understood in this way: So I ask you, addressing the Awakened One by his family name, Gotama, ‘Who can untangle this tangle?’ means: Who is able to untangle this tangle which has entangled existence?”

Tangled up, in blue.
Tangled up, in blue.

Naturally, we are the only ones who can untangle the tangle, for the entanglement is our own doing. It is no good looking outside of ourselves for the solutions to problems created within. From the Buddhist perspective, relying on external beings or forces will provide only temporary solutions. Lasting change must come from our own inner being.

When questioned in this way, the Awakened One, walking in unobstructed knowledge of all things, confident with the Four Confidences, bearer of the Tenfold Strength, possessor of unimpeded knowledge and the all-seeing eye, spoke this stanza in answer:

‘When a wise person, established well in virtue,
Develops consciousness and understanding,
Then as a seeker with concentration  and insight,
That person may untangle this tangle.’

Buddhaghosa defines virtue as the life condition of a person who refrains from killing living things, lying, stealing, etc; virtue is ethics. It has long been held in the West that ethics or moral behavior is only possible through belief in a supreme being. Without belief and without fear of the creator, humans would be free to make up their own moral standards and it would be a case of “anything goes”.

I feel that Buddhist ethics is different.  As I see it, Buddhist ethics are based on four core principles: hri, apatrapa, prajna and karuna.

Hri is “self-respect” or “conscientiousness,” although it can be translated as a “sense of shame.” Apatrappa can also mean “shame”, as well as “decorum” or “consideration”. Put together they mean that a person should avoid committing unwholesome acts out of respect for one’s own being (striving to keep the mind pure) and out of consideration for others.

Prajna is wisdom, having a clear understanding of what harm oneself, and karuna, compassion, is recognition of what harms others.

The goal of Buddhist ethics is supply guidelines for what should or should not be done to insure the highest good and avoidance of evil. This, is what Buddhaghose means by “pure.” Actually, he gives “purification” a threefold meaning. One is the purity of virtue. Secondly, refining the mind, having thoughts free of discrimination, cultivating a non-dual mind that sees all things equally without prejudice. And thirdly, Buddhaghosa equates purity with nibbana (nirvana), “which is free from all stains and is exceedingly pure.” In this sense, we can say that ethics and nirvana are identical.

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Problems and Benefits

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That ‘Old Philosopher’ and poet of Ancient China, Lao Tzu said, “The acceptable and the unacceptable are both acceptable.”

This means to take life as it is. Sounds simple. Well, it is easy to accept the acceptable, but to accept what is unacceptable seems counter-intuitive to normal way of thinking. What is unacceptable is undesirable, unsatisfactory, intolerable, unreasonable – why would we want to embrace that?

If we look at it from a psychological point of view, it is important to be in touch with our negativity. We cannot overcome anger, sadness or other bad feelings unless we deal with them. Buddhism teaches that suffering comes from our thoughts and feelings, so it seems rather obvious that denial is not a strategy we want to employ. We can expand this to cover just about everything else in life.

Early Buddhists developed a meditation practice designed to help us accept the unacceptable. It is called Kammatthana, a Pali word that means “basis of meditation” or “place of work”. These are meditation subjects suited to individual temperaments and inclinations.

Buddhaghosa, in his epic meditation text Visuddhi-magga (“Path of Purification”) listed 40 kammatthanas, and they range from subjects such as the non-existence of a permanent self and the idea of friendliness to some really unacceptable ones like the impurity and wretchedness of life and a the idea of a corpse in a state of decomposition.

Buddhaghosa wrote, “When the mind is familiar with the perception of foulness, then even divine objects do not tempt a person to greed.”

I have never meditated on the idea of a rotting corpse, and I don’t I ever shall. But I do get the intention behind it.

The first step in accepting the unacceptable is recognizing that to divide things into acceptable and unacceptable, good and bad, and so on, is dualistic thinking. That is not as simple as it sounds, either.  It is difficult to undo thought patterns that are nearly habitual. A way to break down this wall of duality that might be more helpful than corpse contemplation might be to just do away with the idea of unacceptable, tear down the concept of foulness.

To give you an example, one of the most unacceptable things in life is illness. Definitely one of the worst problems we can have. In his book, Ultimate Healing, Lama Zopa Rinpoche advises us that “To transform our problems into happiness, we have to learn to see them as pleasant.”

He goes on to say that to see problems as problems, illness as illness, unacceptable as unacceptable has many disadvantages and that we can turn it around if we meditate on the benefits of problems, which is probably a more difficult notion to hold in the mind than the idea of a corpse.

I don’t think I need to discuss the various ways in which embracing the unacceptable is beneficial. If you open your mind, they will come to you. When it comes to thoughts and emotions, we must be willing to experience even our negative thoughts and emotions fully. We can’t allow ourselves to reject them as invalid. Everything is valid. Whatever arises in our life is acceptable. Take life as it is.

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Untangling the Tangle

On Filed under Buddhism 1 Comment

A while back I highlighted some of the keywords and search terms that cause people to stumble upon The Endless Further, and I provided some answers. I know that most of those folks probably found what they were looking for, either here or elsewhere, but it’s interesting to deal with them anyway. Here’s another one:

“what does it mean to untangle the tangle buddhaghosa”

“Untangle the tangle” is a well-known phrase found in the the Jata Sutta (“Samyutta Nikaya”, Chapter 7, Sutta 6). Buddhaghosa was the Indian Buddhist scholar who stands out as the pre-eminent commentator on Theravada understanding. His Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, believed written in Ceylon in the beginning of the fifth century CE, is a comprehensive study of Buddhist doctrine and meditation technique. In his introduction to this work, Buddhaghosa quotes, and then comments on the Jata Sutta passage:

The sutta tells how a Brahman named Jata (“Tangle”) Bharadvaja visiting the Buddha at Savatthi posed  this question :

‘Tangle within, tangle without,
Sentient things are entangled in a tangle.
And I would ask of you, Gotama, this:
Who can untangle this tangle?’

Buddhaghosa comments:

By ‘tangle” is meant the net of craving. For craving is like the tangle of the network of branches of bamboo-bushes and the like, in the sense of an intertwining, because it arises again and again, repeatedly in connection with such objects as visible things. And it is said to be a ‘tangle within and a tangle without,’ because it arises as craving for one’s own needs and others’, for one’s own person and others’, and for consciousness subjective and objective. Sentient beings are entangled in such a tangle. Just as bamboos and the like are entangled by such tangles as bamboo-bushes, so all living beings, are entangled, enmeshed, embroiled, in that tangle of craving, this is the meaning.

And because of such entanglement, the meaning of, ‘I would ask of you, Gotama, this,’ is to be understood in this way: So I ask you, addressing the Awakened One by his family name, Gotama, ‘Who can untangle this tangle?’ means: Who is able to untangle this tangle which has entangled existence?

Tangled up, in blue.
Tangled up, in blue.

We are the only ones who can untangle the tangle, for the entanglement is our own doing. It is no good looking outside of ourselves for the solutions to problems created within. From the Buddhist perspective, relying on external beings (whether immortal or mortal) and forces can only bring temporary solutions. Lasting change must come from our own inner being.

When questioned in this way, the Awakened One, walking in unobstructed knowledge of all things, confident with the Four Confidences, bearer of the Tenfold Strength, possessor of unimpeded knowledge and the all-seeing eye, spoke this stanza in answer:

‘When a wise person, established well in virtue,
Develops consciousness and understanding,
Then as a seeker with concentration  and insight,
That person may untangle this tangle.’

Buddhaghosa defines virtue as a state present in a person who refrains from killing living things, etc. Another word for virtue is ethics. It has long been held in the West that ethics or moral behavior is only possible through belief in a supreme being. Without belief and without fear of the creator, humans would be free to make up their own moral standards and it would be a case of “anything goes”. Therefore, consequence is what determines virtue and leads to a system of ethics.

Buddhist ethics are entirely different, and based on two sets of principles: hri & apatrapa, and prajna & karuna.

Hri is “self-respect” or “conscientiousness,” although it is can translated as a “sense of shame.” Apatrappa can also mean “shame”, as well as “decorum” or “consideration”. Put together they mean that a person should avoid committing unwholesome acts out of respect for one’s own being (striving to keep the mind pure) and out of consideration for others.

Prajna is wisdom, having a clear understanding of what harm oneself, and karuna, compassion, is recognition of what harms others.

The goal of Buddhist ethics is simply to provide knowledge of what should or should not be done to insure the highest good and avoidance of evil. This, in essence, is also what is meant by “pure.” Buddhaghosa gives “purification” a threefold meaning. One is the purity of virtue. Secondly, refining the mind, having thoughts free of discrimination, a non-dual mind that sees all things equally without prejudice. And thirdly, Buddhaghosa equates purity with nibbana (nirvana), “which is free from all stains and is exceedingly pure.” In this sense, ethics and nirvana are identical.

– – – – – – – – – –

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Sunday Dharma: Buddhaghosa

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Buddhaghosa was the Indian Buddhist scholar who stands out as the pre-eminent commentator on Theravada understanding. His Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, believed written in Ceylon in the beginning of the fifth century CE, is a comprehensive study of Buddhist doctrine and meditation technique.

The Visuddhimagga is divided into four sections: 1) Virtue, 2) Concentration (Samadhi), the Purification of Consciousness, 3) Understanding, the Soil of Wisdom, and 4) Wisdom. This selection is from the introduction to “Description of Virtue,” and is based on the translations of Pe Maugn Tin (Pali Text Society,1922) and Bhikkhu Nanamoli (Singapore Buddhist Meditation Centre, 1956).  These are the opening lines to the Visuddhimagga, a nice blend of poetry and dharma.

‘The man who is, on virtue planted firm,
Develops intellect and intuition,
Then as a seeker ardent and perceptive
He may untangle this tangle.’

Thus it was spoken. But why was it spoken?

It is said that to the Awakened One, then staying at Savatthi, there came one night a certain celestial being who, in order to have his doubt removed, asked this question :

‘Tangle within, tangle without,
Sentient things are entangled in a tangle.
And I would ask of you, Gotama,
Who can untangle this tangle?’

Briefly the meaning is this: By ‘tangle” is meant the net of craving. For craving is like the tangle of the network of branches of bamboo-bushes and the like, in the sense of an intertwining, because it arises again and again, repeatedly in connection with such objects as visible things. And it is said to be a ‘tangle within and a tangle without,’ because it arises as craving for one’s own needs and others’, for one’s own person and others’, and for consciousness subjective and objective. Sentient beings are entangled in such a tangle. Just as bamboos and the like are entangled by such tangles as bamboo-bushes, so all living beings, are entangled, enmeshed, embroiled, in that tangle of craving, this is the meaning.

And because of such entanglement, the meaning of, ‘I would ask of you, Gotama, this,’ is to be understood in this way: So I ask you, addressing the Awakened One by his family name, Gotama, ‘Who can untangle this tangle?’ means: Who is able to untangle this tangle which has entangled existence?

When questioned in this way, the Awakened One, walking in unobstructed knowledge of all things, confident with the Four Confidences, bearer of the Tenfold Strength, possessor of unimpeded knowledge and the all-seeing eye, spoke this stanza in answer:

‘The man who is, on virtue planted firm,
Develops intellect and intuition,
Then as a seeker ardent and perceptive
He may untangle this tangle.’

In setting forth, according to the truth,
The meaning of the stanza of the Sage,
which speak of virtue and such other things,
I will expound the Path of Purification,
Which relies on the teachings of the devout
Dwellers at the Great Monastery, and contains
Purest exposition, gladdening even those
Who never may find purity
For all their striving, though they seek it here,
Not knowing of the Path of Purity,
Which holds all virtue, and is straight and safe,
Though they have gone forth as seekers and attained
That which is hard to attain in the Victor’s realm.
Devout men, whose desire is purity,
Listen attentively to the things that I relate.

Here, by ‘Purity’ is meant Nibbana, which is free from all stains and is exceedingly pure. The Path to this purity is the ‘Path of Purification.’ The means of its acquisition is called the ‘ Path.’ I am going to speak of that Path of Purification. This Path of Purification has been set forth in terms of simple insight in which it is said:

‘All things conditioned are impermanent,
When one understands this
And turns away from what is unwholesome and ill,
This is the path to purity’

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