According to the dictionary: s.f., from the Latin Invidia. Mixture of pain and anger; feeling of displeasure about the prosperity and happiness of someone else; desire to have what others have.
For the Catholic Church: Against the Tenth Commandment (You shall not covet thy neighbor’s house). It appears for the first time in Genesis, in the story of Cain and his brother Abel.
In a Jewish parable: A disciple asks the rabbis about the passage in Genesis: “The Lord was pleased about Abel and his offer, whereas he was not pleased about Cain and his offer. Cain was exceedingly angry and his face fell. Then the Lord said to him: Why are you angry and why did your face fall?”
The rabbis answered:
“God should have asked Cain: Why are you angry? Was it because I did not accept your offering, or because I accepted the offering of your brother?”
For journalist Zuenir Ventura: The verbs associated to it (envy) are corrosion and destruction. At the same time, it is necessary to see envy as a human reaction. All the theories about envy reckon that the best way to fight against it is to assume that everyone feels it, in different degrees.
For writer Giovanni Papini: The best revenge against those that want me to lower myself consists of attempting to fly to a higher peak. Perhaps I would not go up so much without the impulse of someone who wants me on the ground. The truly wise individual goes further: he makes use of his own defamation to retouch his portrait better and eliminate the shadows that the light throws on him. The envious person becomes, without wanting to, the collaborator of his perfection.
Envy and ethics: For the scientist and researcher Dr. William M. Shelton, envy is a reaction provoked by losers, who seek to evade reality by hiding behind a crusade seeking to reinstate “moral values”, “noble ideas”, and “social justice”. The situation becomes dangerous when the school system begins to develop in the student the conditioning for despising all those who manage to be successful, always attributing any success to corruption, manipulation and moral degradation. As the pursuit of success is something inherent to the human condition, the students end up in a schizophrenic process of hating exactly that which would lead them to happiness, thereby increasing the anxiety crises, and reducing the capacity to innovate and improve society.
Satan and the demons: The demons came to complain to the Prince of Darkness. For two years they had tempted a certain monk who lives in the desert. “We have offered him money, women, all we have in our repertoire, and nothing worked.”
- You don’t know how to do it properly – replied Satan. – Come and see how you should act in a case of this sort.
They all flew to the cavern where the holy monk lived. There, Satan whispered in his ear:
- Your friend Maccarius has just been promoted to Bishop of Alexandria.
Immediately the man blasphemed against the heavens, and lost his soul.
Comment from the Tao Te King: The perfect wise men of Ancient times were mysterious, supernatural, penetrating, and too profound to be understood by men.
They were alert like the man who crosses the stormy river thawing after the winter. Prudent like he who is the guest of someone very ceremonious. Evanescent like ice when it melts. Unpretentious like uncut wood as yet unshaped by human hands.
Who can, through serenity, purify little by little, what is impure? Who can become calm and stay like that for ever? He who follows the Perfect Path does not want to be full of anything.
(next: Sloth, last deadly sin)
[quote comment="2779"][quote comment="2655"]This topic reminds me of a quote from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural speech:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate…[/quote]
Nice quote, and thank you for sharing it, but it is misattributed to Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural address. A quick search through that very speech (also full of splendid prose) on the ANC’s official web site confirms that the quotation isn’t there:
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/1994/inaugct.html
Nor does it appear in any other of his published speeches (searchable on the same web site).
As it turns out, the author of the quotation is Marianne Williamson, from her 1992 book, “Return to Love” (p. 165). You can verify that through Amazon’s “search inside the book” feature.
this is why i like communism , everyone is equal , we are all comrades , every one of us. though practically communism is doomed , because there will always be someone who wants more…..
as i get some money out of my pocket to buy a newspaper i drop 50 pence on the floor and look at it , i pretend not to notice but the woman at the counter must have seen aswell. she does not tell me and as i walk out of the shop she frowns as if i should have done something. and i feel like asking her “did you frown because i had lost something or because i did not recognise that i had lost something and so i did not get embaressed about it”.
this is the thing. as long as some of us wish to see others lower than them , so that they look better is envy……… but the only reason they want us to be lower than them is because they are too lazy to become higher than us. this is called sloth but that is another story………….
mirjam,acfernandez
that quote is really nice,who better to utter it than the person-nelson mandela.
shadows follows us,if we don’t try to keep it in check and out of fear and hide it,one day it will grow longer and bigger and cause problems.No devil or satan ther just plain humanness,it would be us or our actions which lead to that.devil i feel is the better part of the God,we wouldn’t no it would we,since for a tamasic(very aggresive and with a thirst for hard action) everything what he does is fair.So what could be wrong?what is good?isn’t it the society which brands things?
Talk about your goals but don’t gloat. That is the curse, that is pride, and every sin has a curse. And achieving your goals is not easy you will have to overcome something to achieve your goal. So yes there will always be people wanting to stop you or other forces. Just keep on going.
I found myself wondering about this envy earlyer tonight. I wonderd, do’s ones envey curse anothers desiers? Should we sometimes keep our goals secret?
Peace.
Michael
Envy is hard to overcome. Everyone thinks he or she deserves better than the situation they are in. And grass is always greener on the other side. I sometimes feel envy too, because there was so much I had to overcome when I was young but still there are people around me richer than me, more succesfull than me just because they were born with a name.
But Nelson Mandela was right
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
And envy is just an emotion that eats you up inside. And giving you all sorts of reasons to feel that way. Not letting you use all the gifts God has given to you. When we understand that we all have our own path, and that we have no right not folowing our dreams. That is when you lose your envy and start focussing on becoming the person you want to be.
[quote comment="2655"]This topic reminds me of a quote from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural speech:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing
small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.”
[/quote]
These words from Nelson Mandela, quoted by ACFernandez, are so very true, as we walk together our different paths.
Greetings,
Mirjam
Dear Aditya: Maybe you present me a mirror, maybe not. Why would I be lying??? I recently experienced that someone close to me was almost dying and I could not bare the thought losing him. Thank God&Goddess that he survived!!! I am very grateful and feeling the light. I have stared in a deep mirror and I saw that Love was the only thing. But, as you may know, in this western world Love is not always the one and only thing which gives life importance. I’ve met many people who could not cope with the pace we have to live in, with the stress, with society as it is now. Fighting for them, fighting for acceptance, not seeing them put away behind masks and walls or whatever.
Thank you AVC. Maybe I have to find another way, when there seem to be no way. Not what I hoped for, but that’s life, isn’t it?
Goodbye.
Mirjam
And also Aditya, dragons come out of any mouth, don’t feel bad, it hapens to me too. Although a bit harsh, I found your words to Mirjam very valid. We become so lost in our own misery sometimes that we forget to see the sublime of life, the simple gift of breathing as you say. But, that is also a very human sentiment, don’t you think? We want our dreams and we want them now, like spoiled little brads -rolls eyes-lol.
I hope wherever you are you are not forgetting the little moon up in the starry sky and that on the other side, there´s the sun awaiting to salute you in the morning, always.
Cheers,
Clover
-wishing to never forget that life’s already a gift and a miracle, and that I should just live it, instead of this virtual one… rolls eyes again!-
Dearest Aditya,
What is pleasure for you? Do you really believe real pleasure comes with pain? Isn’t that a fool’s paradise? Here’s a very good article I found on the ¨pleasure¨ seekers through artifitial means -drugs, gambling, etc- versus real and lasting pleasure.
http://dukemednews.duke.edu/news/article.php?id=503
Pleasure with pain can never be any real pleasure, that’s a hoax my friend. Unless we are talking about the wicked witch of the East from Oz, I don’t believe any real good witch is in the pursuit of endless pleasure but rather is searching for truth, wisdom, love and understanding life, not death!
:) :) :) -now that I finally learned I can’t get enough of them!-.
Love,
Clover
Dear Mirjam,
Our walk seems to be similar at the moment, I would say just keep walking, and as AVC wisely stated…the real warrior persists and believes in his heart.
xx
Clover
Dear Debbie,
What I have to face right now is my own lack of centerdness, your opinions are always spot on…:) :) :) Let’s hope I’ve finally learned how to put the happy face.
Hugs,
Clover
A.V.C,
seeing the diffrence in your & my response to Mirjam, i really need to shut up, at least for a while.
Vishes ! Thanks that u did respond ! time has been a matter of intrigue for me too, i simply don’t know how best to put it. ‘neti neti’ from upnishads can be used as a tool to go into it, while remebering what zesus said about time, what Krsishna says and also what einstein said about time, it’s relative.
I have been following an intense routine for some time and am burning out, just look at the brutal language that have come out of me lately. AVC has shown me a mirror.
wols are allowed periods of retreat, no not to give up but to recoup ! i am availing of it now, i have to learn to speak gentlemanly, which i am. ( Please bear with me this line ) wonder why zesus had to resort to “if u have eyes see, if u have years listen…” while he was speaking to perfectly noramal people who had all their five sences of perception intact.
love
aditya
PS : don’t forget to read a comment which came to me, my mind about Athena ( Third chapter, Witch of Portobello ). One of the charecters of the novel ( r they real or fictitious, i am still not sure, maybe reading the rest in the book form will be better ) defines a witch as someone who justifies her existance by going in search of limitless pleaure. Now pleasure and pain are related in the equation of opposites, one cannot be / come without the other. This very defination explains the ‘limtless pain ‘ the witches have found themselves being subjected to !!! does it.. hmmmm…
If we look around, within; is not a search for ‘limitless pleasure’ that which most of us won’t mind, r actually doing, in this increaisngly material world ! moderated, mostly, only by our cowardice and sometimes by our divine spark !!. r we tending ( as a mathematcian would put it ) towards being witches ! oh !!!
Dear Mirjam,
Our learning process is the one I described, by thesis-anthesis and synthesis.
Having asked ourself a question, one day we perhaps think we have found the answer. Happy days!
Then, after a while, we start to analyse the answer and pretty soon we find some new serious questions, a new antithesis.
It is like a sequence of ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? and the spiral repeats itself, like life in its smalles details, but every answer is found on a different level. This is evolution.
By dividing everything in this way, the pieces may eventually coagulate and unify into beautiful principle. Something that cannot be expressed in words, because when you do, you divide it up once again.
Do not dispair. Keep on searching. Don’t take it too seriously. You are doing what you have to do – there was no other way.
A warrior is not a warrior because he wins every battle. He is a warrior because he doesn’t give up.
Love,
A.V.C
aditya,
i meant both ways i.e. qualitatively and quantitatively.
time i feel is what everything is embedded in.It is a part of illusion or maya(yoga maya).thats what i feel…what about you??
Dear MIrjam
Sorry to interrupt your melancholy, brooding … and worse to Shock u with this.
Stop fooling us and if u r not fooling us, then stop being fooled by u’r own mind.
u say “I really experienced at the bottom that Love is really the most important of life. So, now what?” dear mir, u r lying or worse, u r being lied to. If u have really experienced love, u will not be asking this question ? it’s a trick of your mind. When Zesus ‘really experinced’ love, what did he do, did he ask now what ? Look at your own behaviour, not u’r self image in your thoughts. Do u notice each morning as a gift from god, u may have died in the night, do u see the joy on the face of the leaves, when u water their roots and playfully spray a few showers on the leaves too, do u dance in the wind, do u have a heart to heat with the moon. Till u can remember when was the last time u noticed the subtle phases of the moon, till u learn to say thanks each time u have u’r meal, not only to god but to those hundreads unseen hands which make it possible for you to cook u’r meal or just have it, till u’r awareness remains while u pray, till u become aware of each of the subtle ‘gifts’, till u become aware, u have not ‘known’ love. Don’ rest in false assurances from your mind, look into u’r own behaviour as an uimpartial observer.
The ‘lier’ bit was just to shock u, to catch u’r attention. hope i am forgiven !!
Deb !! “As soon as you deny something…that’s when it wreaks havoc for you” hmmmmm…. could u elaborate !! please.
aditya
regards
Dear Clover,
I totally know how situations are always so much more than we can explain in words and in time and space. ;) (Oh! btw, Winky and smileys are made by using either the semi colon ; or colon : and then a right parentheses ) in case you really want to make them!)
I just recently started explaining a situation in my own life to someone who doesn’t really know my whole life situation, and because they don’t know about everything, they were left to make an inaccurate judgement, and I felt really flustered about it, realizing that it really is hard to take a small snippet of your life and ask for an opinion from someone about it. Because everything is all connected and intertwined in a whole messy ball of wax. And in order to understand part, you have to understand the whole.
So, I was aware that I gave you my opinion on only a snippet of your life. I wish you luck with your relationship. One thing, though, that I think is true across the board is that each relationship we have is merely there to reflect something to us about ourselves for our growth. And, in order to learn what that bit of wisdom is…in order to get the right answers… you have to ask the right questions. Which may mean asking a million and one questions. I continually ask questions for this purpose and I know some people get annoyed with me for it. But, I realize that if people have a problem with it, that maybe it’s because they don’t want to learn about themselves, too, and that’s fine. I just don’t want people like that in my life…people who are content to stay in their darkness and not examine it.
Because, yes, like AVC and Vishesh have pointed out..you really have to embrace everything in your life. As soon as you deny something…that’s when it wreaks havoc for you. So our goal is really to face everything about ourselves, no matter how ugly. I think I’ve said this before, too, here…and there I go repeating myself again! ;)
Take care!
Love,
Deb :)
Hi All,
Sorry for being away for some time, I’m climbing my mountains, which cause a lot of pain and fear. It’s like AVC said, having all the cards on the table.
Bloggers, I read your words and my heart goes out to all of you, climbing your own mountains. I feel respect for you, doing what you do.
I hope I can find the inspiration to do the same, go on and not giving up. I do not know really what to do: go on or give up. Overcome my fears or taking my own alternative path.
My path is always an alternative one, never ‘normal’ and I’m getting tired of it. Reading your words and mine, and some recent experiences made me realize that I had to go back to the ’simplicity’ of life. I found what I was looking for. And now what?
I can see clearly now, but the world around me, except for my loved one, is still very complicated.
I really believe that becoming our own master gives us freedom. Freedom within ourselves. But now I’m stuck in my prison again, and feeling sad and angry. Again there is a big wall in front of me.
I’m suffering of anxiety attacks and I’m really getting tired of fighting. Having learned so much and feeling like a fool again.
I wish I would have something better to write to you all, but I have not. Except for one thing. I really experienced at the bottom that Love is really the most important of life. So, now what? Does somebody have a good idea?
Love to you All.
Mir
A V C
U write “Fear seems to be the primal cause for the notion of sin.
Why then are so many people, who claim to be spiritually enlightened, so afraid of knowledge?”
how does the question follow from the assertion ? do u know any such enlightend peopele who is afraid of knowledge. If one is afraid, one is not enligthened, period ! ( does not mean his/her ( an enlighend person’s) actions will necessarily Appear to be fearless )
I found your ‘theory of knowledge’ interesting, hmmmmmm….
When u r spekaing of treausre, I hope it remains the tresasure that we simple folks understand, not a treasure of nothingness, as pedalled by Zesus to Buddha to … Osho.
I need to get myself deaddicted from visiting and worse contributing ( or just making the hill of beans higher as Deb would see ! ) on this blog, so much !
regards
Aditya
PS : Spekaing of opposites, the most primal dilema remains that of fear & faith ! no !
HI Vishesh !
U have said
“I feel hate is the better part of love.”
do u mean quantitively i.e. in relationships there is going to be more hate than love, or do u mean qualitatively i.e. hate is thebetter or more refined part of love. either way I don’t see love/hate like that.
“we have to conquer pain but you can conquer certain things,it is better to be friends.”
to win over in a freindly way is the only lasting win, if any win is by force, we can win the physical manifestation, but the root the soul will continue to rebel. Only way to win is to create win win, rest all is temporary.
“There are many sayings in india aren’t they about how we should keep all our enemies close to us so that we can watch their moves.”
No not to watch their every move, but to learn of our ‘msitakes / shorcommings ‘ from them, the one attributed to Kabir says.
So freidn what do u feel is ‘time’
relax ( me too ! )
aditya
Dearest Debbie,
Sorry for not having replied before but was taking time off to meditate. Thank you so much for having taken the time and effort to write such briliant analisis, you have certainly xrayed into part of my psyche. The funny thing is that the guy also reads-participates in this blog, he was actually the one that took me here. So that was a double psychoanalisis you did. Unfortunately, the matter is actually even more complicated than what it seems or I would-could write here.
As you wisely said, I should be focusing on my own self and life rather than on someone else’s. It’s just that we get caught in our minds and our hearts, specially me being the very instinctive and irrational that person I am.
If I have learned a lesson out of this is that of reaffirming my conviction that only love matters in life,and that I will forever hold my dream. I have witnessed once again how a life lived in caos can lead us to the most desperate and dark alleys of this human existance. A place many of us travel at leats once in life.
Love is the only healer, the only answer and the only salvation, that is once again the lesson for me, the rest is dust in the wind.
Soul-Clover one and the same, seems to be a trend to have multiple personalities, lol. I have been looking to find a four leaf clover in a garden but have never succeded, can you believe it? Have seen them but already cut out of nature. But you telling me you have gives me hope. wink wink. How do you do the happy faces??? xxxxx
Josephine- That is so sweet of you to offer sending me clovers, I thought you already had my address though?
Kealan- Too bad love is for free.
I just saw the picts of the party Paulo held, seems so cool! What does the fire ritual simbolize, anyone?
Amen,
Clover
envy is not a problem if you are truly happy , we envy possessions but we dont need them to be happy , we just need the things from wich to survive , death is the final step , your body is your ultimate possession and when you die you become a part of nature (theory of taoism) that is why heaven is such a happy place , because you have no material possessions.
Fear seems to be the primal cause for the notion of sin.
Why then are so many people, who claim to be spiritually enlightened, so afraid of knowledge?
If we believe that unity originally manifested itself into opposites, and if our ultimate goal is to reach back to that unity once again, we must first learn all we can about the opposites of the lower manifestations. When we know them, we can unify them into a higher understanding.
Pain and pleasure. Force and form.
You cannot skip the search for knowledge of the manifested opposites if you want to reach an understanding of their origin. Learning always follow the principle of thesis- antithesis-synthesis.
Or to put it in another way, reason can only be transcended when it has been exhausted.
There should be no need to choose between science and religion. Everything under the firmament is holy! Visit all parts of the world. Explore everything. Sort the relations out in your own system.
Draw your own treasure map and the treasure will appear.
aditya,
when i was talking about loving pain,it comes in the context that we should love everything, i am trying force or argue,it is just that even things we hate we love.I feel hate is the better part of love.
we have to conquer pain but you can conquer certain things,it is better to be friends.There are many sayings in india aren’t they about how we should keep all our enemies close to us so that we can watch their moves.It is like that when you do that you start loving.you can’t help it :-)