Coveting

Yesterday I had written about the five mental behaviors that eat us up from within. But then I didn't say anything about their antidotes.

1 Comparing: Comparing ourselves with others,

2 Competing: Competing excessively with others,

3 Coveting: Coveting what others have and their lives,

4 Complaining: Complaining about others and the circumstances,

5 Criticizing: Constantly criticizing others and the situations. These are behaviors that none of us aren't spared of. They are things that we all have, including me. The only difference might be in slightly varying degrees. All five of them are destroying us.

For the moment let's consider only the third of the five cancers of mind, Coveting. It is coveting what others have. Envy is at it's root.

The basic attitude is "I haven't got it."

The permanent result is complete dissatisfaction.

How can we get rid of this?

The usually-recommended antidote is to practice gratitude. In life, what things are given to us and what things do we enjoy! But we tend to receive them "taken for granted". Ignoring, unappreciative! Those are our typical attitudes. This makes life very boring. We will have no satisfaction in anything. When we start practicing gratitude in life, we will start accepting everything with a grateful heart. We will look at nature, others, and circumstances with gratitude. With that, we will undergo a change from being egocentric to being altruistic. Humility will slowly come to us. Like in the case of little children, everything around us would fill us with wonder!