What If Envy Was Sabotaging Your Hopes and Dreams?

Are you imprisoned, by your emotions and beliefs, and you don’t even know it? And,

what does envy have to do with you being imprisoned and not even knowing it? In the Matrix trilogy, the movies beg the questions,“Are you enslaved without knowing it?” “What is reality, anyway?” among many other questions. There’s even a website devoted to questions about the movies, which notes, “…the creators of The Matrix have revealed little about what the movies ‘mean'; if there's a purpose to these movies, it's to encourage questions, not provide answers.” Notwithstanding the creators of the Matrix trilogy, I am willing to offer answers (and then more questions), and then let you decide whether those answers have any value for you.

Reality (including any envy you may have ever felt or will ever feel) is not only what is in front of you, it also includes what is behind you, next to you, and way more than your five senses can report to you. Where does reality end? You decide. You are capable of knowing much more than you think you know, of being much more than you have been told that you are, much more than you believe about who you are, and what you have come to believe about yourself, let alone about your “reality.” It is time for you to ask yourself: what more is there for you, right here, right now, just beyond your beliefs, just beyond your emotions, just beyond your sensory experiences, just beyond what you have been told, and what you have come to believe, just beyond what your limits supposedly are…? What more can you become conscious of? And ask yourself this: Does consciousness precede the mind? Spoiler: the answer is yes. Source: thousands of years of proof. Proof: the true ancient knowledge of the East, not the incomplete or inadequate information maintained by ambitious aspirants.

The first trick to getting the real answers to those questions is to learn the difference between discernment and judgement. It is a short, shallow learning curve, and it looks like this:

judgement includes the notions of right doing and wrong doing. Per Coleman Barks, Essential Rumi,

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase each other

doesn’t make any sense.”

Jelaluddin Rumi

Discernment simply recognizes that there is positive and negative in this world, and that there are consequences for every action. My suggestion is to fire the judge and jury between your ears, over and over, starting right now. And retain, develop, and hone your capacity for discernment.

The next trick is to bring that discernment to bear on the question: what am I willing to do so that I can have more of what I really want? I italicize the word “really” on purpose. What I mean by “really” want is this: that which goes beyond the desires of the ego, and embraces the desires of the place in your heart where unconditional love dwells. [My definition of ego: your sense of yourself as separate from the rest of your world. (It has its place: that is another story, known as lesha-vidya)] You do NOT have to leave the desires of the ego behind. Quite the contrary, they have their place. The next question is: are those desires (of your ego) really getting you what you want or are they enslaving you? Now we come full circle, back to the original question.

Envy is tricky, seductive, and tempting. It is definitely a desire of the ego. As such, it can spin its web of deception with subtlety and mischievous intent. The trick is that it can be malicious or benign. It can work for you and it can work against you. Benign envy can motivate you to want more for your self and for your world. You might see someone in your world who has become free of the bondage of envy, truly, not just as a pose. You might want that for yourself and your world. You might see someone in your world who has completely dedicated their lives to helping others become free of the bondage of ego and you might want that for yourself and for your world. That is benign envy. Whenever someone who is carrying around hurt inside, and they see someone who has something they want but don’t believe they themselves can have, they might try to bring that person down, out of a malicious envy.

Another problem is the pull on us that the desires of the ego have. There is literally an addictive quality to many of our negative emotions. “What underscores fear in all its permutations is the feeling that you won't be all right… Most people are subservient to this emotion though they may not know it. [emphasis mine]” notes Judith Orloff, M.D. The addictive aspect of the adrenalin rush, often associated with experiencing fear, in any of its permutations, is noted by Marty Nemko Ph.D. : “adrenaline addiction: creating stress to get an adrenaline rush…Lying, stealing, gambling, and substance abuse also yield an adrenaline rush. So can picking a fight: a physical one or an argument about a controversial subject such as politics or race. Usually, that yields more adrenaline than benefit…The more a person does such behaviors, the more s/he feels life is boring without the adrenaline hit, and thus is made the adrenaline junkie, seeking ever more and ever higher highs.”

So what is the remedy for envy? Simply this: 1) Notice. Notice whenever you are feeling some kind of envy, benign or malicious. Notice your choices on account of your feelings. 2) Take time out. Time out to just be with your feelings, without having to act out on them. Time out to self reflect. Time out to get more conscious about what you may not be totally aware of that is motivating your feelings and your actions. 3) Get good help. 4) Remember what Albert said: "No problem can be solved by the same KIND OF THINKING that created it. [emphasis mine]” [see: danshawen, Junior Member]

In other words, get to another kind of thinking. I suggest the kind of thinking that incorporates the ancient Science of the Soul (not a belief system, hence not in conflict with any belief system), which presupposes the connection between your mind, your heart, your body and your soul. That is, however, only the first step. Whatever your first step, my suggestion is to NOT trust the time, that is: do something today that will help you get closer to the remedy you might need, should you be facing the question of envy and whether or not you are bound by it, knowingly or unknowingly.

Disclaimer: none of this material is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek professional advice. Information on this website is not intended to be nor cannot replace professional medical advice.