Jealousy has no solid existence

JEALOUSY has no solid existence. Jealousy is like darkness. Darkness does not have an independent, positive existence. Darkness is not the presence of something. Darkness is just the absence of light. In the same way, jealousy has no independent, solid existence by itself and is just the absence of knowledge or awareness.

Emotions such as fear, desire and guilt are subjective emotions. You do not require another person or even an object to create these emotions. Imagine that you are in a soundproof room with your eyes closed and with nothing to touch, taste or smell. You can still experience the emotions of fear or desire. But to compare yourself with another person and to feel jealous of him, you need the presence of another person.

Jealousy needs an object to be activated. There is no end to comparison because comparison exists in the mind, not in reality. Hence, jealousy that arises from comparison indeed has no basis. Jealousy is closely related to many negative emotions — anger, greed, possessiveness, depression, etc. All of these emotions will dissolve when we break this cycle of jealousy.

Suppose there was a huge ladder and everybody in the world was asked to stand on it in ascending order of success in any field, such as beauty, intelligence, etc. You would probably position yourself somewhere in the middle of the ladder. There are many people above you but there are also many people below you. Observing the people above you causes you to feel jealous; so you constantly try to become better than them in order to move further up the ladder. Now, at some point in your life, you may realise the uselessness of this never-ending game. Then you want to jump off the ladder. This is where the fight starts. When you look up, you experience misery, but when you look down, you experience happiness. So even though you now begin to realise the futility of spending your life just climbing the ladder, still you are not able to jump off the ladder because if you jump off, you will be left alone — there will be nobody above you or below you.

This does not mean that the best way out of the problem of comparison and jealousy is to avoid looking at others and their achievements. You can’t escape from your mind just by ignoring your thoughts! If you can look but not be affected by what you see, then you have found the right way. If you can accept and welcome what you see and what happens, then you are centred within yourself and nothing can shake you.

Be Blissful!