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Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammâ Sambuddhassa!
Jealousy
By Rasika Wijayaratne
According to the Dhamma all
beings when performing unskilful (bad actions) do so with one of these three unwholesome
roots as the basis; lôbha
(greed), dôsa (anger) and
môha (delusion).1
What is jealousy and how does it fit into these three unwholesome roots?
When we see someone
who is better than us in a certain area such study, work, sports, dress, wealth
and property, physical appearance, personality, social standing, etc. a feeling
of resentment and competition can arise. The resentment (resentment based on
dôsa) arises because they
are very good in the thing that we want or desire (desire based on
lôbha) in our lives and delusion (môha)
blinds us from seeing that jealousy is negative and that it can harm both us as
well as others. So jealousy is a combination of
all three roots of lôbha
(greed), dôsa (anger) and
môha (delusion).
Jealousy can arise
when we are strongly attached (attachment
based on lôbha) to people,
for example friends, we can get jealous of others who try to get close to them.
The key as young lay people is not to be devoid of attachment (as that would make
making and having friends impossible) but to recognize how
very strong attachment can manifest as jealousy and cause harm
to ourselves and others. Also if a friend we are strongly attached to expects us
to do something that is very harmful, we may end up doing it because we are afraid
of losing that friendship. Sometimes we just have to
let go, in the same way we have been practicing to letting go with our
daily dâna practice. Dâna
can give you the training and mental strength to let go, or renounce, of any situation,
thus preventing you from doing any unskilful actions.
The answer to jealousy
is the practice and development of
muditâ, the appreciation
and happiness for others' success and well-being, and is one of the four
brahma vihâra. Muditâ
needs to be practiced within our mind, in our speech as well as our physical actions.
We can train ourselves to be mentally glad for others' success (mental action),
genuinely verbally praise their successes (verbal action) and try to physically
help them to be even more successful, even if it is
more than ourselves (physical action). So we should use every
opportunity to develop this happiness for others success rather than being jealous,
but this needs to be developed slowly and in small degrees over a long period of
time rather than abruptly.
Finally the question
we need to ask is: is being jealous going to stop others from having whatever it
is they have; or does it degrade us as individuals and prevent us from being the
best that we can be? I think the answer is obvious. The thing we need to realise
is that we are not trying to rise above others, but our own selves.
Notes
1. Môha (delusion) is always present in unskilful states and
is the basis for lôbha
(greed) and dôsa (anger).
Related Youth Articles
1.
Daily Dâna by Rasika Wijayaratne (on generosity)
[ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=dailydana
]
2.
Five Precepts by Rasika Wijayaratne (on morality)
[ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=pansil
]
3.
Metta Meditation by Rasika Wijayaratne (basic instructions on the meditation
on loving-kindness) [
http://vihara.org.au/go?to=mettamed ]
4.
Attachment by Rasika Wijayaratne (an analysis of)
[ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=attachment
]
5.
Delusion by Rasika Wijayaratne [ http://vihara.org.au/go?to=moha
]
6.
Mental Purity by Rasika Wijayaratne (on subduing anger, etc) [
http://vihara.org.au/go?to=vitakkasantana ]
Related Suttas
1. MN 20, Vitakkasanthana Sutta,
The Relaxation
of Thoughts, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu [
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.020.than.html ]
Other Resources
1.
Mudita - The Buddha's Teaching on Unselfish Joy four essays by Nyanaponika
Thera, Natasha Jackson, C.F. Knight, and L.R. Oates [
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/various/wheel170.html ]
2. See the Accesstoinsight.org section on brahma-vihara [
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index-subject.html#brahmavihara ]
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