Judaism
Psalms 16
Text
Michtam of David. Keep me, O God; for I have taken refuge in Thee.
I have said unto the LORD: 'Thou art my Lord; I have no good but in Thee';
As for the holy that are in the earth, They are the excellent in whom is all my delight.
Let the idols of them be multiplied that make suit unto another; Their drink-offerings of blood will I not offer, Nor take their names upon my lips.
O LORD, the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup, Thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel; Yea, in the night seasons my reins instruct me.
I have set the LORD always before me; Surely He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also dwelleth in safety;
For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to the nether-world; Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy godly one to see the pit.
Thou makest me to know the path of life; In Thy presence is fulness of joy, In Thy right hand bliss for evermore.
Text: The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society (1917), public domain, via Sefaria.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277 (trans. F. Max Müller)
“‘All created things perish,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.”
Tao Te Ching 76 (trans. James Legge)
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“Nay, but as when one layeth His worn-out robes away, And taking new ones, sayeth, "These will I wear to-day!" So putteth by the spirit Lightly its garb of flesh, And passeth to inherit A residence afresh.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Dhammapada 2 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with pure intent you speak or act, happiness follows you like a shadow that never leaves.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”