1 Samuel 12:10 · World English Bible
They cried to Yahweh, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.’
Pamāda: Heedlessness Heedlessness is the slack, forgetful drift of a mind off its post. Forsaking rarely takes one loud decision; it happens the way a fire goes out when nobody tends it, and then the Baals and Ashtaroth are simply what stands there in the morning.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Pamāda: Heedlessness Heedlessness is the slack, forgetful drift of a mind off its post. Forsaking rarely takes one loud decision; it happens the way a fire goes out when nobody tends it, and then the Baals and Ashtaroth are simply what stands there in the morning. Samuel is reciting generations of exactly this, each one drifting off quietly while the altars filled in.
Kamma: Action and its fruit Kamma is a deed ripening into its result. The hand of the enemies grows out of years spent serving other masters, the way an unpaid debt comes due with interest. The confession puts both in the right order in a single breath, the forsaking first and the enemy's grip after, which is how fruit follows seed.
Saṃvega: Urgency at the sight of danger Saṃvega is the shock that turns a person around. The cry goes up late, only once the enemy is already on the land, the way someone finally sees a doctor when the pain starts waking them at night. Fear did the turning here, which is why the turn had to be made all over again in the next generation.
Hiri and Ottappa: Shame and moral dread These two are the inner blush and the fear of consequence. "We have sinned" comes out plainly, with no blaming of the Baals for being attractive or the neighbors for their altars. Owning the deed is like admitting you left the door unlocked instead of cursing the thief, and it is the point where change can start.
Yoniso manasikāra: Attention to the root Yoniso manasikāra is attention that reaches the cause under the symptom. The word "because" carries the whole diagnosis, tracing the trouble past the enemy armies to the forsaking that let them in. Pulling a weed up by its root rather than its leaves is the work that one small word is doing.
Saṃsāra: The round of wandering Saṃsāra is another turn around the same circuit. The shape is well worn by now: forget, suffer, cry out, be rescued, forget. "Deliver us and we will serve you" buys an exit from enemies while leaving the wanting itself untouched, so the wheel comes back around to the same spot, and Samuel is telling it to people who are at this moment asking him for a king.
Buddhism lens
What have I been meaning to tend to, and what would tending it look like this week instead of after the next emergency?
Deal with a thing while it is still small, because what is hard was once easy and what is huge was once nothing. Trouble is simplest to handle before it has arrived.
Ask what each thing is in itself and what caused it, instead of reacting to how it looks on the surface. The cure follows the diagnosis, not the complaint.
Turning back is not finished by saying the words. It is finished when the same situation comes again and you choose differently.
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Buddhism