We want what we do not have, and that is what drives us and makes fight to build a brighter and happier future, to be better and wiser people.
We feed desires, and when one comes true it is immediately replaced by another. It is part of human nature - that continued ability to generate dreams, desires, of not having empty spaces inside of us. Desires allow us to design the future and move forward.
We hunt happiness as if we were hunting chimeras - as if happiness were a mythological animal that we may never reach. And when we finally find it, we petrify with the fear of losing it - treating it as something borrowed, that an envious being may steal from us at any time. Since antiquity envy is that misshapen shadow that threatens happiness.
It is associated to the eye and that’s why the belief in the 'evil eye' persists. It is believed that the 'evil eye' is caused by envy - conscious or unconscious. And it is said that envy, which comes by looking, has a destructive force capable of annihilating the happiness and well-being, capable of causing damage to the thing or person that is the target of frustrated desire. To assign to the third parties the cause of misery or unhappiness is also an old behavior, although it is an exaggeration! However, it is certain that all feelings are energy, and the kind of feeling - whether it is positive or negative - is what gives form to that energy. And envy is a negative energy that triggers equally negative reactions. "Schadenfreude" is a German concept that holds that the envious take pleasure in the pain of the person envied. And sometimes they even cause that pain.
There is no such thing as good envy! Envy is the bad and unspeakable side of desire.
Envy is the intense desire for something that we do not possess, that it is not ours, but that we wish were ours. Envy is a heavy word, which refers to ugly and destructive feelings. Greed is born of immoderate desire for something material or not. At its origin, envy meant “walk in the other person's spiritual step” - the walk was based on the efforts of others. Currently, envy is reminiscent of that initial concept.
And what is the difference between desire and envy? Both seem to have the same root, the same source - born in the same place. What makes desire acceptable and envy despicable?
Desire is the wish to have something, but with your own effort, it is to look at your future and fill it with good things. Envy is to look at your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and want to have things or qualities that they possess.
Desire does not cause anger, wrath. It starts and ends in itself: when you do not get what you want, it generates no resentment, no suffering. You do not think about it anymore. That moment ends and does not return to haunt us.
Envy is different: it generates hatred when you cannot get what you want. It creates an inexplicable and overwhelming feeling of hatred towards the person envied. Envy is associated with anger without reason: the rage of someone owning something that we really want but that is not ours, something that does not belong to us!
Desire is yearning for a wonderful future, but it is also wanting others to succeed, be well, be happy, have better wages, have a great life! Envy is feeling uncomfortable with the success and joy of others, it is to silently wish that they end up badly, to be happy with their problems, and not to stand their having a better life!
For Buddhists envy arises from the combination of two words: one which means greed and another which means jealousy. And it's a feeling that prevents spiritual evolution and blocks the path to enlightenment.
We must rise up to overcome envy and the hideous feelings it arouses - anger, bitterness, revenge. Envy is the right path to a future of unhappiness!
It takes courage to know when to stop and choose which desires to feed, which futures to plant and plan. You need tranquility to create a calm silence - within yourself - immune to the constant noise of always wanting more. It takes wisdom to be beyond greed, envy, and tread the paths of enlightenment.
No comments:
Post a Comment