| 23. (The deva
said:)
Beings are entangled by
the internal and external entanglement of Craving.1 O Gotama, may I
ask you this: who can disentangle this tangle?"
(The Bhagava said:)
A
bhikkhu, one with innate wisdom,2 strenuously striving, sagacious in
all respects, established in morality, who cultivates concentration of mind and
develops Vipassana-Insight, can disentangle this tangle.
"The arahats who have discarded attachment, hatred and ignorance, and in
whom the defilements are extinct, have disentangled this tangle."
"Where mind and
matter together with forms of consciousness due to contact and forms of
consciousness that turns upon Corporeality3 come to utter
cessation,
there (in the
realisation of Nibbana), this tangle of Craving breaks up."
End of the Jata Sutta,
the third in this vagga.
1. entanglement of
Craving: Craving arises in seeing, hearing, smelling, etc. It does so again
and again, involving the whole range of the six sense objects. It works in a
most intricate way so that it causes a tangle. Craving for one's possessions
and oneself is the internal entanglement. Craving for others possessions and
other persons is the external entanglement.
2. innate
wisdom: wisdom present at conception.
3. By the term
'forms of consciousness due to contact,' it is to be understood as
'existence in the sensual planes'.
By the term 'forms of
consciousness that turns upon corporeality' it is to be understood as
'existence in the fine-material planes.' The two terms taken together imply the
inclusion of the non- material sphere, thus covering all the thirty-one planes
of existence. (The Commentary)
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