2 Samuel 12:21 · World English Bible
Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread.”
Anicca: Impermanence Conditions change, and no arrangement holds still. While the child was breathing the situation was open, and David pressed into that opening with everything he had; when the breathing stopped it closed, and he turned with the change.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Anicca: Impermanence Conditions change, and no arrangement holds still. While the child was breathing the situation was open, and David pressed into that opening with everything he had; when the breathing stopped it closed, and he turned with the change. To keep fasting past that point would be holding an umbrella up long after the rain has stopped, which is what his household seems to want from him.
Upādāna: Clinging Clinging is the grip that wants a passing thing kept. Seven nights on the ground with untouched bread beside him were a hand closed hard around a single outcome: let the child live. Once the thing gripped is gone the grip has nothing to close on, so the hand opens on its own, and washing and eating follow without any struggle to release.
Parideva: Lamentation Weeping and crying out are grief's loud phase. The tears while the child lived were aimed at someone, a plea to the God who might still relent, and they end when there is no longer anyone to plead with. The servants expect the wailing to swell now, since afterward is when wailing is supposed to start, and its absence is what they cannot read.
Sīlabbata-parāmāsa: Grasping at rites and observances Treating a practice as owed, apart from what it does, is grasping at form. Their question, "What is this that you have done?", assumes mourning has a required shape: fast afterward, weep afterward, louder than before. By that measure David has run the order backward, and the broken sequence is what stops them.
Upekkhā: Equanimity Steadiness when nothing further can be done is upekkhā. "He rose up and ate bread" is that steadiness in the plainest act available: a body that needs feeding gets fed, and the ordinary day is allowed to start again. Composure here is not coldness, since the love that kept him on the floor for a week is the same love that now stands up and asks for food.
Buddhism lens
Am I still holding the umbrella up long after the rain stopped?
When his wife died, Chuang Tzu sat and drummed and sang, and when scolded for it he said she had simply gone back into the great turning of things. His calm was not coldness; it was agreeing with what had happened.
Never say you lost something, say you gave it back. The child, the house, the body were all on loan, and the day they are taken is the day the loan ends.
No gale blows all morning and no downpour lasts a day. Conditions move on, and the wise move with them instead of staying put.
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Buddhism