Jealousy

Hi Friends,

I was just feeling jealous of someone just now...and I don't really feel jealous often, just envy...and even so, thats rare for me.

Well, anyway the way to overcome all emotions is to:

1)Acknowledge it
2) Feel that feeling completely
3) Detach from it (let it go thru you)

Dark emotions, generally are a waste of time and energy. However, they help us to learn. So maybe, we should call them 'teaching' emotions instead.

Whenever I'm jealous, I try to think about a parable. In it, there is a dandelion. She was always happy, when she was a young plant, a budding plant, a flowering plant, and finally a dying plant. An ant asked her why she was so happy, when the rest of the plants around her weren't. She replied, 'Well, unlike them, I don't pay any attention to the long-living, majestic and beautiful oak tree beside me. I am a dandelion and he is an oak. We cannot be compared.'

Or maybe the parable Zen masters like to use. A small wave was feeling sad. Other waves were so big like tsunamis. So he consulted another 'old' wave. The 'old' wave told him, 'You are sad because you do not understand your true nature. You may look superficially like a wave, but actually, you are water. We are all water. We are part of the ocean.'

We are often compared to others. We are taught to think that if we see others with better exam results for eg., we are inferior. Or when we see that others are living a comfortable life with luxuries, we feel jealous.

It is then that we repeat to ourselves, 'I am a dandelion. He is an oak.'


Aaron Chia
Lord Protector of the Realm
The League of Advanced Sentients