Monday, November 25, 2013

苦 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble...

This world is imperfect. There are a lot of suffering and injustice. Buddhism has this term dukkha (in Pali) or duhkha (Sanskrit). Although dukkha does mean suffering, it also includes ideas such as imperfection, impermanence, emptiness, and insubstantiality. This is a universal fact recognized by all. The Bible has many verses that tells us that the world is imperfect, impermanent and full of troubles and that death reigns over all.

Life is short and troubled
Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. (Job 14:1-2 KJV)

Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah. (Psalm 89:47-48 KJV)

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:14 NASB)

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. (Psalms 103:15-16 KJV)

Labour is vanity
As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. (Ecclesiastes 5:15 KJV)

Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. (Job 1:21 KJV)

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (1 Timothy 6:7 KJV)

Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah. Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
(Psalms 39:5-6 NASB)

Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? (Habakkuk 2:13 ESV)

The world is suffering and in decay
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:22 ESV)

They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: (Psalm 102:26 KJV)

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades ... (Isaiah 40:6-7 ESV)

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