Personal Growth by Overcoming Jealousy and Selfishness

Now, you know the dangers of selfishness and it is the cause of jealousy, while jealousy nurtures selfishness.

Let's begin by a story of a snake. Once the tail and the head of a snake quarreled and fought over who should be the leader. The tail said to the head: "You are always taking the lead, so unfair to me, you ought to give me lead sometimes." The head instantly replied, "That is impossible because it is the law of nature that I should be the head taking the lead and I cannot swap with you". The argument went on for days until one day, out of frustration, the tail fastened itself tightly to a sturdy tree. The head could not move on as the tail did not want to give way, so the head decided to let the tail take the lead. Unfortunately, the tail could not see where it is heading to and finally the snake fell into a pit of fire and perished.

There are some people out there who are never satisfied with their possessions and they are always jealous of those who have more than them. This negative thought of jealousy which they are harboring in their mind deprived them from enjoying what they have. Even if they have already done a great job in everyone's eye, they are still not satisfied and worry that someone else has performed better than them. We should turn the table around and disperse this negative thought of jealousy counting the blessings rather than cultivating jealous thoughts.

The basic factor that drive jealousy is selfishness. When one become self-centered, he lives only for himself and regards the all others as his potential rivals. He will become envious of their success, possession and cannot tolerate their happiness. As a result, he will become totally unsociable and dangerous that will create many problems.

Upon knowing the danger of harboring jealousy, we should also how to deal with it. We can do it by devoting our time and energy to cultivate the positive thoughts of kindness and sympathy. We should think that there is nothing for us to lose when other makes progress or achieve success.  Modesty should be cultivated, self-centered craving to be abandoned and we should develop joy upon seeing happiness of the others. On the other hand, we must have patience with others that are jealous with your success. We should think and check back if we have flaunted our achievements or did not act with humility. We should not get angry as anger does not solve problems but only aggravate the situation. It does not only hurt the other party, but it also hurt you.

We should always adopt such a positive mindset in order to attain a happy and contented life.