{"id":35611,"date":"2026-05-11T09:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=35611"},"modified":"2026-05-11T09:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:09:09","slug":"the-tangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=35611","title":{"rendered":"The Tangle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">\u201cSnarled, knotted\u2014these neurons got as tangled<br>As the hair on top. The living are snagged<br>In their own matted mess, they <em>are<\/em> this thatch.<br>Who, I ask you, can fix such a tangle?\u201d<br><br>\u201cA person. Ethical. Concentrating. <br>Insightful. Methodical yet ardent.<br>Someone who has fully accepted this task.<br><em>This<\/em> person can unravel the tangle.<br><br>\u201cDesire, hatred, and ignorance fade<br>While you pay attention to untangling.<br>Name and form fade, and the gap is gone<br>Between wish and fact. Then: no more tangle.\u201d<br><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a loose rendition of <a href=\"https:\/\/suttacentral.net\/sn1.23\/en\/sujato?lang=en&amp;layout=sidebyside&amp;reference=none&amp;notes=none&amp;highlight=false&amp;script=latin\">Linked Discourses 1.23 <\/a>from the Pali Canon (a dialogue between a troubled demigod and the Buddha). Buddaghosa presents an entire book, <em>The Path to Purification<\/em> (probably 5th century CE), as a commentary on the second verse of this poem. See also: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=21061\">Tangled Beauty<\/a>,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=31809\">The Fetter<\/a>, etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cSnarled, knotted\u2014these neurons got as tangledAs the hair on top. The living are snaggedIn their own matted mess, they are this thatch.Who, I ask you, can fix such a tangle?\u201d\u201cA person. Ethical. Concentrating. Insightful. Methodical yet ardent.Someone who has fully accepted this task.This person can unravel the tangle.\u201cDesire, hatred, and ignorance fadeWhile you pay attention [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,1,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-uncategorized","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35611"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35626,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35611\/revisions\/35626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}