Cattāri Brahmavihārā

If there were one thing which would be the antithesis of mudita it would have to be envy.  This morning as I was doing my muditā bhāvanā with my mala I realized that there was a certain tightness (I literally felt this in my chest) at times as I brought to mind certain blessings which my difficult person has received. It was funny how I could, with just the right amount of effort and just the right turn of the mind loosen the contraction and come into an appreciation once more of goodness manifest in their present circumstance. I fear that, as always, I’m using far too many words to describe this but we can squarely put the blame on my philosophical education during my undergrad days.

Anyway, I found this nice little piece on envy and have pasted it in its entirety below:

“The characteristic of envy is aversion to the prosperity and welfare of others, which makes one malicious and destructive. These evil desires occasion suffering right now and also in the future for the person who harbours them, leading also to suffering for those who are envied. All over the world much suffering is caused by envy. The envious person hates to see happy or prosperous people. So the characteristic of envy is resentment of other people’s welfare, its function is to make the envious person miserable, and its manifestation is to shut one’s eyes to another person’s prosperity.

One who is dominated by envy does not want to see another person prosperous, successful, good-looking, educated or promoted to a high official position. Envy is an evil that does not benefit in any way the person who harbours it. It provides fertile soil for bad kamma and makes one miserable. A powerful man will seek to ruin the person whom he envies, and by so doing, he turns the other into his enemy who may pay him back in kind. Even if there is no danger of retaliation, he will surely suffer in an after life.

The Cûlakammavibhanga Sutta sums up the kammic consequences of envy as powerlessness and a lack of influence. Some men and women do not want to hear anything about the good fortunes of another person—his wealth, intelligence, good health, eloquence and popularity, and so they say or do things that are detrimental to the other person’s interest. Propaganda in modern times is motivated by envy. The envy-ridden person suffers in hell for many years and after his release from there, if he is reborn in the human world, he becomes a low-class man with little influence and an insignificant reputation.

On the other hand, a man of goodwill rejoices at the good fortune of others. He is happy when he sees or hears of another’s prosperity and helps to promote others’ welfare as much as possible, thus cultivating much good kamma. He attains the deva world after death where he enjoys a happy life, and on return to the human world he is powerful and has many followers. So those who wish to prosper in this life and in the hereafter should overcome envy and cultivate sympathetic joy (muditâ). In other words, they should rejoice at the welfare of other people.”

It’s funny that I never really considered myself a jealous or envious person until I took up the formal practice of cultivating appreciative joy and met envy head on.  If nothing else were ever to come from muditā bhāvanā just having seen and known this directly would be quite a gain. May you be well, happy and peaceful!