(Minghui.org) Some practitioners and I recently discussed the issue of jealousy in our group study over two days. I wrote down the discussion on jealousy as follows, hoping it would help us all improve together.
In order to recognize jealousy, one has to know the forms that jealousy takes. We know from Master Li’s teaching that people with jealousy always feel unbalanced and angry, look down upon others, and don’t feel good if they see others who are better than they are in certain regards.
Some Chinese practitioners have been influenced by Confucianism, which makes them prone to being jealous. In the Chinese Communist Party culture, jealousy grows stronger and more complex. So jealousy has been present for a very long time, and as such, we must pay extra attention to it.
Master taught us:
“The attachment of jealousy must be relinquished, so I have singled out the issue in this lecture.” (Zhuan Falun)
I realized that since jealousy causes great damage and that Master has singled it out, each practitioner needs to remove it.
Many fellow practitioners thought that they, themselves, only had a tiny bit of jealousy or even no jealousy. In my opinion, those with such thoughts did not realize the forms that jealousy takes, let alone being able to remove it. I have this issue as well.
A practitioner asked me, “Do you have jealousy?”
“No!” I instantly answered.
“You answered too quickly without thinking. It is likely that there is a problem,” they said.
Through communication with practitioners, I found that the jealousy hidden in each practitioner is not only strong but also hard to detect. I would like to give the following examples:
My mother-in-law took good care of my husband but did not treat me the same way. I felt uncomfortable when I saw them having a good time, and I felt that I was being ignored. A thought came: “Didn’t I take good care of her? I did not mistreat her!” It was jealousy creating those thoughts.
A local practitioner said that her husband loved her very much. Whatever good food he bought, he would let her eat first. But when their child turned two-years-old, her husband would let her child try the good food first. She felt uncomfortable and realized it was jealousy, feeling jealous of her child. She sent righteous thoughts to remove it.
She told me how she looked inward to detect such a trivial thing when it occurred. I suddenly realized that I also had jealousy with my son.
My son would side with his father when there was any disagreement in our family. I felt unbalanced: “I spent so much effort to raise you, but your father is first in your heart. However, he has not spent as much effort as I have.”
Of course, that jealousy occurred very fast and was weak, as we are family, after all. Because it was not so strong, it was often ignored.
Case 1:
I had a good relationship with a fellow practitioner. After she got to know another practitioner, they developed a closer relationship. They met each other and enjoyed talking with each other. That made me feel uneasy. Later, I realized it was jealousy, stemming from selfishness and emotion. I sent righteous thoughts to remove it.
Case 2:
Two practitioners formed a team to talk with Chinese people in public, trying to persuade them to quit their membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The first one was good at talking and helped lots of people quit the CCP. The second one dared not open her mouth to talk, so she stood aside to send righteous thoughts. But when she saw that the first practitioner spoke so smoothly, she developed jealousy toward her. She even had a thought in her mind: “Don’t quit! Don’t quit!”
The first practitioner was upset with the second one’s jealousy, so she would rather go out to talk to people by herself. It was jealousy that defeated Dafa practitioners from within the group and prevented them from forming one body.
Case 3:
Practitioners Wang and Li liked to share cultivation experiences with one another. Later Li made friends with Zhang. They liked to talk a lot about practicing Falun Dafa. Through their experience sharing, Li improved a lot.
When Wang and Li talked again. Wang said, “You used to be not as good as me, but now you are better than me.” That is typical jealousy.
Case 4:
One practitioner said, “I don't know why, but I don’t feel happy when I hear other people share good news.”
“Neither do I,” The other practitioner said. This is also a display of jealousy.
Case 5:
Practitioner Du and Liu are both young female practitioners.
Liu cultivated diligently and did the three things well. She was good at persuading many people to quit the CCP. On the contrary, Du dared not talk face to face with people about Falun Dafa, and she helped a lot fewer people quit the CCP. Du thus developed jealousy toward Liu. She would use other topics to criticize Liu.
As time went on, Du caused big tribulations for her family, and her own body had major health problems. However, she did not realize that she was jealous of Liu. She was proud of her straight talk with Liu and thought that she did that for her sake.
It is no problem for us to point out fellow practitioner’s problems with the right motive. If the motive is bad, however, then it has a damaging effect on the body of Dafa practitioners.
Master taught us:
“When I teach the Fa, I often bring up the issue of jealousy. Why is this? It is because jealousy is displayed very strongly in China. It is so strong that it has become natural and one does not even feel it.” (Zhuan Falun)
Case 6:
I chatted with a fellow practitioner from Beijing City. She said she could maintain her empty mind and that she was already in the state of semi-enlightenment. I told her that a practitioner could persuade several dozen people to quit the CCP in one day; within several years, she had helped several hundred thousand people to renounce the CCP, I added.
This Beijing practitioner said with a competitive tone: “Would she dare do so in Beijing?” What she meant was that the practitioner was only able to persuade many people to quit the CCP in a place that was not as tightly controlled as Beijing. In Beijing, where severe persecution takes place, she could not achieve such good results, this practitioner implied.
I then realized that I admired that practitioner who could help so many people quit the CCP, which was jealousy. The Beijing practitioner was also jealous of the practitioner who had cultivated better than her in certain regards.
Case 7:
The last example I will mention here was that a practitioner was released from police custody because of her righteous thoughts and actions. Another practitioner failed to do so. She was jealous therefore of the practitioner who got out of jail, and she was suspicious of her. “Did she really come out of the jail with righteous thoughts?” she asked. “Are we sure she hasn’t done anything bad, such as being a spy?”
If we always pay attention to our thoughts, we may find that jealousy often shoots out. Chinese have a deep-seeded kind of jealousy, so the situation is very complex. Yet if we remove jealousy first, we can cultivate diligently.
Although I’ve mentioned here many cases about jealousy, I am not criticizing anyone. My goal is to show the detrimental effects caused by jealousy so that we may improve and be diligent together. Please point out any inappropriate points.