(Minghui.org) I have long wanted to share my understanding concerning jealousy, since it exists among quite a number of Falun Dafa practitioners. This hinders their ability to assimilate to Falun Dafa and save sentient beings.
Master said, “If jealousy is not abolished, everything that you have cultivated will become fragile.” (Zhuan Falun)
I realize that if a cultivator does not let go of jealousy, it is going to be very hard for him to develop righteous thoughts and his cultivation is likely to end up in vain.
Manifestations of Jealousy
There are a few common symptoms of jealousy among practitioners:
The first symptom is feeling uncomfortable when seeing other people doing well.
The second symptom is being selectively jealous. One compares oneself to people who are on par with them and they get uneasy when good things happen to their peers. A severe symptom is to feel annoyed by anyone’s achievement.
There are different levels of uneasiness. For example, when seeing a beautiful flower, people who have let go of jealousy will appreciate it and cherish it. People who are jealous may feel depressed because it is more beautiful than themselves. Some may comment that the flower is not beautiful and say that it is uglier than some other flower. Some may spit on it and ask, “What is it that you are showing off,” while others may smash it.
The third symptom is being self-centered and thinking less of others. Some may show a snobbish attitude and some may try to hide it. Also, some practitioners gossip with others about how some practitioners did not do well.
The fourth symptom is to feel happy when other people get into trouble. Some even try to add insult to injury.
Last but not least, some practitioners use their own standard to measure others; they become angry when others cannot meet their standards.
Foundation for Jealousy Nourished by Party
For Chinese people, Confucianism laid the foundation for jealousy. The Chinese Communist Party's egalitarianism doctrine has further nourished it. People become selfish. They have the tendency to think from their own point of view and rarely care for others' feelings.
People who harbor jealousy may have a strong ego and worry about saving face. They will explode when being criticized. They then either counter back by criticizing the criticizer, end the friendship with the criticizer, or even badmouth the criticizer.
Some may have a strong rebellious heart and purposely oppose others. For example, instead of supporting other practitioners' projects to save sentient beings, they oppose or criticize them, ruining those projects.
Some are only nice to people and agree with others on the surface. They feel that they are better than other practitioners. They create factions and criticize practitioners not in their group. This is likely to create barriers among practitioners and give demons excuses to make trouble for us.
Some are narrow-minded and revengeful. Whoever makes them uncomfortable, they will look for an opportunity to hit back.
Some become extremely careful and very sensitive. When their jealousy shows up, their attachments to competition, comparison, showoff, hatred, vanity, and fame and interests will display themselves.
Cherish Cultivation Opportunity
I realize that to get rid of jealousy, we must fundamentally change from being “for oneself” to being “for others.” The beings in the new universe are unselfish.
For example, if we view jealousy as a tumor, cutting it off may not completely remove it. Only when we change ourselves to the point where it prevents the cancerous cell from developing, can we completely eliminate it.
The selfish nature, which is the characteristics of the old universe, is the soil for jealousy to develop. So we must cultivate ourselves to an unselfish being.
Every human heart, including jealousy, is a roadblock in our path of cultivation. It is time for us to be serious and completely get rid of them. Actually, any slack in our cultivation and any delay in getting rid of attachments is not to cherish our cultivation opportunity and not to cherish our true life.
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Category: Improving Oneself
