Rejoicing in the happiness and success of others and transforming jealousy into a feeling of joy and connectedness.
In the Buddha’s Third Noble Truth, he taught that true cessation of human suffering exists.
The suffering of anger ceases with the practice of patient acceptance.
The suffering of attachment ceases by meditating on impermanence.
The suffering of negative Karma ceases by practicing purification and moral discipline.
And the suffering of jealousy ceases with the practice of rejoicing.
The Suffering of Jealousy
Jealousy is a feeling of unease or displeasure that arises when witnessing the success, happiness, or good fortune of another. Feelings of envy give rise to the desire to see people deprived of their good qualities and attainments. It stems from our personal attachments, ego, and ignorance.
Consider that people with strongly jealous reactions will not have friends with greater success, happiness, or good fortune than they have.
Any people they encounter who are perceived to be better than they are will cause them to feel uncomfortable, and they will likely react negatively to them, make unkind comments, and generally push them away.
This leaves the jealous person with a social circle full of “friends” who are less successful, less happy, and less wealthy than they are. Plus, if they attain anything at all, this group of “friends” will react harshly and negatively to any good news, triggered by their own jealousy.
Such a social circle would be a constant emotional drag, and they would preclude any possibility of the person escaping to become a successful, happy person who enjoys good fortune.
Jealousy ultimately robs us of our ability to feel joy or satisfaction in our own successes and good fortune.
Jealousy hinders all spiritual growth
The trap of jealousy is reinforced by a social circle of those similarly afflicted, guaranteeing any attempt to escape will be put down in strongly negative terms.
Jealousy is antithetical to essential spiritual virtues.
Where compassion and loving-kindness wish for the happiness and well-being of all beings, jealousy wishes for the opposite. Jealous people prefer others not to be happy or enjoy well-being out of their own selfish desire and a lack of empathy.
Jealousy is considered a major obstacle on the path to Buddhist enlightenment. It clouds the mind and hinders the development of wisdom and compassion.
Jealous people are prone to engage in negative actions, gossiping and talking negatively about others behind their backs, even actively undermining successful or happy people, further generating negative karma.
Overcoming jealousy
Buddhism offers several practices to overcome jealousy.
Mindfulness meditation helps in recognizing and observing jealous thoughts without acting on them.
Practices like loving-kindness meditation aim to cultivate positive emotions towards others, including those whom one may be jealous of.
Through wisdom teachings on the impermanent and non-self nature of phenomena, one realizes that personal achievements or possessions are transient and do not define one’s true nature, good or bad.
The practice of Mudita, or sympathetic joy, is a direct antidote to jealousy in Buddhism. It involves rejoicing in the happiness and success of others, thereby transforming jealousy into a feeling of joy and connectedness.
Sympathetic Joy and Rejoicing
The word rejoicing to many in the West involves church service and God worship. In Tibetan Buddhism, rejoicing involves taking delight in the happiness and virtues of others. It’s a conscious effort to appreciate the good qualities and achievements of others, including their spiritual progress, moral conduct, and acts of kindness.
Rejoicing is often practiced as medicine, an antidote to apply whenever jealousy arises. It’s a cessation practice as described by the Buddha in the Third Noble Truth. Rejoicing puts an end to the suffering of envy and jealousy.
The practice of rejoicing is reactive. Whenever a practitioner feels jealousy arise, they know to immediately practice rejoicing to replace the envious feelings with sympathetic joy.
By genuinely appreciating others’ successes and virtues, practitioners learn to overcome feelings of competitiveness and bitterness. This practice cultivates a sense of interconnectedness and empathy.
Rejoicing in the virtues and good deeds of others generates merit, a positive energy or force that contributes to a person’s spiritual growth and eventual attainment of enlightenment.
Rejoicing is closely linked to the development of bodhicitta, the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. By rejoicing in others’ virtues and happiness, practitioners expand their altruistic intentions, essential for developing bodhicitta.
Rejoicing as a practice in daily life
The ultimate goal of rejoicing, like all Buddhist practices, is to transform the mind. Rejoicing is one aspect of a balanced spiritual practice in Tibetan Buddhism, which includes ethical conduct, meditation, study, and other forms of mental training.
By repeatedly practicing rejoicing, individuals work towards a mental state characterized by joy, contentment, and an absence of negative emotions.
Buddhist practitioners integrate rejoicing into their daily life. They invoke feelings of joy at a colleague’s success, being happy for a friend’s happiness, and appreciating the good qualities of those around them.
Expressions of sympathetic joy promote bonding with those in the practitioner’s social circle. Over time, the quality of friendships improves as those who are prone to jealousy and negativity drop off, and new friends with more positive outlooks take their place.
