(Minghui.org) A cultivator cannot achieve True Fruition or leave the Three Realms without eliminating jealousy.
A person with jealousy will feel it unfair upon seeing other people's qualities, capability, fame, position, or situation that is better than his own. He might even react with hurtful words or harmful behavior.
These reactions are against compassion, and cause a loss of virtue, and build up karma. Completely eliminating jealousy is a key to having a big heart.
Master told us,
“Jealousy is a huge obstacle in cultivation and one that has a large impact on practitioners. It directly impacts a practitioner’s gong potency, harms fellow cultivators, and seriously interferes with our ascension in cultivation. As a practitioner, you have to eliminate it one hundred percent. Some people have yet to forgo jealousy even though they’ve cultivated to a certain level. Moreover, the harder it is to abandon, the easier it is for jealousy to grow stronger. The negative effects of this attachment make the improved parts of one’s character fragile.” (Chapter III Cultivation of Character – Falun Gong) (7th Translation Edition, 2016)
“Jealous types look down upon others and don’t allow others to surpass them. When they see someone more capable than they, their minds lose all perspective, they find it unbearable, and they deny the fact.” (Chapter III Cultivation of Character – Falun Gong) (7th Translation Edition, 2016)
The ancient Chinese had a thorough description of jealousy: “He would doubt it upon hearing someone has done a good deed, believe it firmly upon hearing someone has done something bad, he will feel as having lost something upon seeing others' gain, but feel at ease upon seeing others' loss.”
Jealousy is a big taboo for cultivators. It also manifests itself in the culture of the Communist Party.
As cultivators, we have to replace the influence of the party culture with divine culture, and follow the requirements of Dafa to improve our cultivation realm.
Chen Jiting, a philosopher from the Ming Dynasty, said there are two shames for a gentleman: bragging about his own strong suits and covering up his own shortcomings. He also said that there are two vices for a gentleman: jealousy of others' capability and spreading others' incapability.
Wang Yangming, another philosopher from the Ming Dynasty, had a theory: People's pain was because of their arrogance. Arrogance caused self-complacency. Self-complacency prevented them from bending to others.
On the contrary, humbleness made one respectful and receptive. It was from the bottom of one's heart, and not for show. Knowing one's own shortcomings will make one modest and willing to learn from others for self-perfection. A humble person would do self-reflection and wouldn't blame others or be jealous of others.
Some fellow practitioners have been carried away by jealousy and the fighting mentality. They lost sense of what was right and what was wrong, and even so far as to sabotage other practitioners' work.
When Dafa practitioners don't cooperate with each other, the evil will be happy, and Master will be sad. These practitioners can't offer salvation to sentient beings, but end up inviting tribulations to themselves.
Master has warned us the harm of jealousy repeatedly. He said,
“Currently there are still some students who fall terribly short in terms of cooperating together. And not just short—it even goes so far as to sabotage one another. I will tell you, regardless of what your thinking is, anytime you serve to sabotage a Dafa disciple’s project or something that Dafa disciples should do, you are acting as a demon. It doesn’t matter that you may be thinking, “I’m a Dafa disciple, and I have done a lot.” The old forces are nevertheless writing entries into your ledger, one by one.” (What is a Dafa Disciple from Teaching the Fa at the Conference XI)
Jealousy is the reason that many practitioners cannot collaborate well. They look down upon each other and even become estranged from each other.
Fighting only makes jealousy worse and it can invite sickness karma. Any attachment can cause trouble and put a cultivator in danger.
A recent sharing article told a story of two fellow practitioners who couldn't collaborate well. One of them was very perplexed.
One time, Master unlocked his memory of past lives, and he saw that the old forces had arranged their conflicts.
Before they reincarnated to this life, Master had repeatedly told them, “You must collaborate well. You must collaborate well. You must collaborate well...”
The practitioner finally let go of his grievances, found his own shortcomings, and took the initiative to collaborate well with his fellow practitioner. Master and Dafa finally resolved their conflicts.
Jealousy is out of selfishness. It's for the same reason that the old forces came into place.
It pulls us in a completely opposite direction of Master's requirements. Following jealousy would be the equivalent of following the old forces. And, it would give the old forces a good reason to be in charge of you.
Master told us,
“Although the old forces' system has been cleared away, the surface of this world has, as you know, not been broken through. In this world that has not been broken through, the old forces set up many things ages ago--tens of millions of years ago. One thing that they set up is turning like a dial. Once it reaches a different position, a celestial phenomenon emerges in the world, and it's connected to the human body.” (Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005)
While the old force' mechanism is still running, the only way for us to deny it is to follow Master's words to assimilate Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance.
Many Dafa practitioners have claimed that they were Master's disciples and only followed the path of cultivation arranged by Master, and they claimed to deny the old force' arrangement.
However, their actions have failed to conform to their words. We have to eliminate our selfishness and all attachments, in order to disintegrate the dial of the old forces.