Jealousy is a pervasive feeling that strikes most of us,
perhaps all of us at sometime or other in our lives. It’s a discomforting
pressure in ourselves that arises as a selfish desire – wishing for ourselves
the fortunes of someone else; a longing that says, why not me? Some of us live with
this pervasive malaise – that guises as something as necessary to us as the
clothes we wear -- day in and day out. We are jealous when our peer is promoted to a
better job at the office; wins a competition, scores more in class, gets the
pretty girl or that cute guy, gets a new car, or house, and the list can go on.
While we continue to experience these emotions, few of us
reflect on why we have these, or where it comes from. To some of us, that feeling
of envy or jealousy may be something we want to carry with us always; something
if we give up, we feel we may be losing a part of us. Or we are just not aware
of this feeling being of any consequence for example of being detrimental – to
our physical, social and spiritual wellbeing. That pain body has become an
integral part of our very make up like an organ or a limb. That is the
deception that our ego plants in us.
But this jealousy is the source of our discontentment in our
society which manifests as conflict and turmoil. It is the ego fanning the
selfishness in us to induce our feeling of envy that engulfs our behavior – at
home, at the workplace, or on the street. It is always the manifestation of
“why should someone else have what I don’t have” syndrome. This acquired sense
of inequality in our minds – fair or not – is the goad that pushes us against
brother, family, and friends.
Have you also not wondered why we feel jealous mostly of our
peers rather than of more distant people or those much older or younger than
us? The ego knows how to fiddle with the switches in our being, to push us
towards rationality too, so that we don’t question it. Competition can only be
with peers. We don’t compete with the old or with the kids, for it is never a
challenge. Our ego grows when we can win in situations that can make our pride
bloat. Usain Bolt will not be thrilled to win competing with high school
sprinters!
So we can come down to two critical aspects of our being
that are the culprits generating our jealousy -- our greed and our
competiveness. Our modernization and economic development is predicated on
these two characteristics. How ironical! Just the two very things that fuel
social disruption and conflict being lauded as that which will bring us progress
in this modern world. Our schools teach this, our families practice it, and our
society welcomes it. We just accept this as an inevitability of modernization –
a global phenomenon in which we seem inextricably mired in.
When the true decadence of greed and competiveness is
realized through self awareness, they will cease to be important. As antidotes
we have in our reach the noble behaviors of sharing, tolerance, and forgiveness,
if only we care to reach out to these by scrapping the will of the ego and
practice them. We have the choice – to bring peace into our midst!
3 comments:
I agree with all aspects, you have covered in your article. Sadly the cure is far from the materialistic people, who engaged in the routine affairs only to benefit the present and ignorant of the future. I hope still few handful of people are befitted from a wise article as such.
keep posting plz.
Thanks. Hope multiplies when more voices join in to celebrate truth.
Very interesting view point Sattarbey. Thoroughly enjoy reading your articles. Jealousy is indeed a very negative feeling that leads to insecurity, anxiety, displeasure and inadequacy within a person. We can definitely do without such a feeling within us.
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