FROM MY CRYSTAL BOWL 2:

WHAT BRINGS ABOUT FEAR & JEALOUSY?


COMPARISSON!


When we compare ourselves to others who we consider better, richer, more beautiful we fear that we may not be better, richer and more beautiful than them. In our competitive world, the fear of not being good enough will overcome insecure people fast. This people but all have one thing in common; they are afraid of being alone with themselves. Inwardly they are poor and they are poor because they don’t do anything to fill this void as this would require work for and on themselves. This way one might discover things about the self that aren’t so good, that we don’t like. What then? Nobody is perfect, that’s for once and secondly one can do something against it, work on the self which does require courage, though. Not looking at it, refusing to look into the self might be the easier way out, some might think. But then, they better be obstinate inside out which definitely is not the way to happiness.

Jealousy implies dissatisfaction with what you are and envy of others, does it not? To be discontented with what you are is the very beginning of envy. One wants to be different from what one is and this desire is the cause of envy and jealousy. The only help would be to seek understanding for what or how you are – your psychological essence. To understand what or how one is constructed but is difficult because it requires complete freedom and absence of comparison.

To be inwardly rich is much more arduous than to be outwardly rich and famous. It need much more care, much closer attention. If you have a little talent and know how to exploit it, you become famous, but inwardly richness does not come about in that way. To be inwardly rich, the mind has to understand and put away the things that are not important, like wanting to be famous or very popular. Inward richness implies standing alone. But the man who wants to be famous and popular is afraid to stand alone because he depends on people’s flattery and good opinion.

Power is one more thing we want to have and fear we don’t. But what is power: Electricity? Atomic power? Yes, and they are good as they can be used to benefit mankind, but the power of the mind used to gain something for itself is evil. We begin the struggle for power very early, already within the family and the evil expends until it becomes the tyranny of government, of political leaders and religious interpreters. The only answer to this evil is love and kindness, to be really considerate. Love is timeless and has its own eternity – and where there is love there is no evil power.