February 21, 2007
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Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?
Quote from this book I'm reading:
"He who spends his life moving away from his treasures has reason to despair. He who spends his life moving toward his treasures has reason to rejoice."
Very true...
Furthermore, I'd expand it a bit - it's not just "treasures" in a fiscal sense. It's pleasures, joys, beauties, anticipations, loves, and special people.
This is the incredible and diametrically opposed contrast between Buddhism and Christianity.
Buddha taught - everything in life is 'changing' and slipping away constantly. If you try to hold on to it, you will only cause yourself heartache and sorrow. Therefore the thing to do is to 'let go'... of everything. Try to rid yourself of all desire. Try not to anticipate anything in the future, or hope for an afterlife, or try to hold onto any beauty or amazing people that surround you. Because it's all transient. The present is all you can ever have.
Jesus Christ teaches - "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)
Buddha taught - everything that's beautiful is all passing away, so stop longing for it.
Jesus Christ teaches (through His Word given in the Old Testament) -
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4
and
"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money come, buy and eat
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
"Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.
"Incline your ear and come to Me
Listen, that you may live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful mercies shown to David.
"Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
A leader and commander for the peoples.
"Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which knows you not will run to you,
Because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you."
Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth
And making it bear and sprout,
And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
"So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." Isaiah 55
Comments (6)
Buddhism does think you should enjoy what you can see in the present. But it also teaches that you shouldn't expect it to always be around, and you shouldn't expect to get more. Expectation is, as they say, the root of suffering.
My problem with Buddhism is not the elimination of material goods, but the attempt to deny oneself. In my personal opinion, the self ought to be elevated - not necessarily to the point where all action is justified by "because I want to," but at least to the point where the person understands that all of his actions are in his own self-interest, whether or not that self-interest includes helping others.
~Sol
I'm curious - why do you believe that the self ought to be elevated? Do you consider it self-obvious, or based on reasons of some sort?
Also, you may or may not be aware that the Bible says that God created humans "in His own image" and talks about our worth on that basis... i.e. we are not important based on our bodies alone (just a collection of molecules), nor for our 'evolutionary value' or any such naturalistic valuation, but rather because God has put His stamp, His mark, upon us in the form of an immortal soul that can make moral decisions and grow to love Him (Genesis 1:27, Matt. 6:26, etc).
Interesting comparison. I'm musing over it in light of what MaryPoppins57 said regarding Lent. The whole idea of delighting in the good things God has given us and not purposely denying ourselves for a season or deny ourselves to better understand Christ's suffering? I know that's not really what you are discussing, but it brought that mental conversation with myself back to mind.
I think the self should be elevated because of Descarte's line, for one thing - "I think, therefore I am." The self is all we can truly have faith in, and in the end it's all we really have. I rely on myself because the particular arrangement of molecules that happens to be me is a pretty awesome one. It's relatively fast, relatively powerful, relatively intelligent, and relatively good-looking. If I lose those things, then I have to rely on my own self to try to get them back.
Part of the reason I don't like Christianity is that I don't like my only worth being because another entity of any kind deems me worthy. That's . . . irritating to me. I'm having trouble explaining exactly why, though.
~Sol
Amen, Tim. Thanks for that encourage. Without the Cross of Jesus, the blood He shed for you and I, there would be no hope. I love the Scripture from Isaiah that says: I know that plans that I have for you, Plans of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope...(says the Lord).
May the Lord give you hope, peace and joy, Tim.
In Him,
Mrs. Swift
why do you spend your money for what is not bread?
indeed. tru dat.
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