Spirituality for Living

Where ever you go there you are. Envy and jealousy are you, or not. You have a lot of power over your own life, and it comes from a very simple realization. Want to change your life? Change your mind. The world is yours when you don’t see everything as a possession. The person you envy, you set apart from you. If you admire something, you admire it because it’s in you too. Next time you have a desire don’t judge it, and don’t envy someone else who pursues that same desire. Just accept you have it, and act on it or don’t.

“Envy shoots at others and wounds itself” English Proverb

“Keep yourselves far from envy; it eateth up and taketh away good actions, like as fire eateth up and burneth wood” Muhammad (Religious leader, prophet of Islam)

“Envy is an insult to oneself.” Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Russian Poet, b.1933)

Perception of Disconnection

Envy is a pervasive force in the modern mind, and it has always been possible in human reckoning. Many human behaviours stem from envy though the connection is often denied. It is sort of like the animal pecking order, but without the acceptance. When you envy something you always disempower yourself.  It’s a perception of disconnection. Admiration is the positive kind of envy? Yes, admiration is recognizing the virtue in a person or thing, and being at peace with it being in the world, but outside of your possession. An artist is often strongly inclined to admiration of parts of… Seek More

Jealous Envy

Why does envy arise? Is it anger? Is it a passion of some kind? Possessiveness? Possessiveness is something that is warped in human nature. Anger that we can’t have it? Insecurity? Yes, we naturally desire things. This is good, proper, and instinctual. We also naturally claim possession of things. Give me a sandwich when I’m hungry, and it will quite naturally become my sandwich, but this is where possessiveness gets warped. Ego creeps in. It’s when my having a sandwich means you can have no sandwich. When the sandwich is mine, and I’m not hungry. When you don’t accept the common… Seek More

Enthusiasm For Life

Envy isn’t clearly delineated. You can envy in countless ways. You can envy someone’s ideas and not recognize it as envy. As you are busy envying their ability to have these ideas, you aren’t listening to them. Nor having the realization that these ideas are being shared with you and can now be called yours by just a matter of deciding it’s so. Envy can trip you up in a lot of ways while what you admire is automatically yours. People like instant gratification, but never permit it. See a beautiful piece of art in a museum? That beauty is… Seek More

Who Do You Admire?

I would like to start by asking you a couple of questions.  Have you ever met someone you truly and powerfully admired? If you did, did you feel a sense of kinship with them? Yes and no. Ah, thank you for your honesty. In what way no? Though I could relate to their ideas, I felt inferior for not living up to their standards. Ah, I see. Well, you show an ability right here that I admire friend.  That comparison. We do it all the time in our casual thinking. Does it ever come up positive? Even if you judge… Seek More

Twisting of Instinct

Envy creeps into our daily thinking, but no situation more so than intimacy. Close friendships, family, romantic relationships. Envy denies intimacy, and if you need any gauge of how much envy affects our mind, look at the divorce rate. I think it’s worse with romantic relationships, from my personal experience. Oh, I agree. It comes from possessiveness, but this might be surprising because I’m not speaking of possessiveness in the normal way. The baby who says “My Mommy! I want my Mommy!” is doing a right and natural thing. It’s not wrong, and they don’t need a lecture on ego. We have… Seek More

Desire for Sex

We villainize our desires like lust. Let’s say I’m very sexually driven.  How does me seeking sexual gratification take anything from anyone? It may make me very attentive to my partner.  They say the two biggest things that ruin marriages are these, and in this order: sex and money. Now I’m speaking to the ladies.  Is it really the guys desire for sex that’s a problem? Ah, no. We’re envying it. Yes it is, if it’s all they want. Not for me. It was his desire for sex with others. Yes, it’s envy, not sex that’s a problem. Our natural… Seek More