Ecclesiastes 1:13 · World English Bible
I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sky. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.
Taṇhā: Craving The heart applied to seek and to search out never reaches a resting place; each answer only sharpens the next question. This is thirst, the engine that keeps the mind reaching for one more thing to know.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Taṇhā: Craving The heart applied to seek and to search out never reaches a resting place; each answer only sharpens the next question. This is thirst, the engine that keeps the mind reaching for one more thing to know. Like drinking salt water, the more you swallow the thirstier you grow, so a heart set on knowing all that is done under the sky is a cup that never fills.
Saṅkhāra: Conditioned Things Everything done under the sky is put together from parts and propped up by passing conditions. These are formations, assembled things that stand only as long as their supports stand. Like a sandcastle that holds its shape until the tide turns, each deed the heart would master leans on causes that give way, so cataloguing all that is done is only listing what is already coming undone.
Anicca: Impermanence Vapor is the plain truth of all that is done: here as a shape for a moment, gone before the hand can close on it. Nothing under the sky stays put; generations rise and pass, the sun climbs and drops, the same waves break on the same shore. Chasing such a world to pin it down is like grabbing at smoke, and the fist closes on nothing every time.
Dukkha: Suffering Here is the heavy burden laid on the sons of men, the affliction stitched into the searching itself. This is suffering, the ache that rides along with wanting a world that cannot satisfy. Like a pack that grows heavier the farther it is carried, the effort to grasp everything presses down until the shoulders bow, and the wisdom meant to lighten life becomes the weight.
Nibbidā: Disenchantment Search everything, satisfy nothing, and the heart grows weary of the chase. This is the turning away that arrives once the eyes have seen too much and the shine comes off the world. Like a diner who has sampled every dish on the table and pushes the plate back still hungry, the wearied seeker begins to set the burden down. That same weariness, walked all the way through, is where the road out of the burden opens.
All five core early-canon terms. No Mahāyāna needed.
Buddhism lens
What are you still trying to find out, hoping the answer will finally let you rest?
Those who know do not pile up facts, and those who pile up facts do not know. Each day the student adds something; the one on the way quietly puts something down.
Some things are within your power and some are not, and the sorting of the two is the whole of the work. Stop demanding mastery over everything happening under the sky and the ache in the chasing drains away.
Life is short and knowledge is without limit, so the one who chases all of it wears out his body for nothing. The chase ends with the chaser, never with the catching.
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