The Way of the Modern Ronin, Part 8

 

Essays and Thoughts on The Dokkodo

Part Eight

Never Be Jealous

Musashi using two swords (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.   -Shakespeare (from Othello)

If you have done Zen practice for any lengthy period of time, then you are probably aware of many of the negative emotions that you  struggle with - or ones that you don't.  These emotions can come upon you when you are sitting on the cushion meditating.  They can come upon you when you are in the dojo (or dojang) training.  And, of course, they can even come upon you in the most mundane times, such as when you are in the checkout line at the grocery store, or when you are stuck in heavy traffic, or when you are busy cleaning your home.  In other words, negative emotions seem to always be there, lurking just beneath the surface no matter the situation.  Of course, you can also have "good" emotions that come up, as well.  These are also emotions that you should not become attached to, unless they are the 4 emotions that need to be cultivated: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.  (These are called the four brahma-viharas in Buddhist practice - the "abodes of the gods".)  And while Zen practice would extoll cutting off all negative emotions at their root as soon as they appear, there are a few negative emotions that seem particularly bad in our day and age.  The two that seem the most dangerous are anger and jealousy.  (Or, perhaps, I should say that these two seem to be the most obviously dangerous - I think the emotions of greed and gluttony are equally as bad, but they are two that seem to be almost celebrated in our current world order.  More on them in a future post.)

"Never be jealous" might the most common translation of this maxim but, to be honest, it's probably not the correct one.  Here are a few other ways that you see this maxim translated in different texts of The Dokkodo:

• No matter the situation, never be jealous
• Never be jealous of others
• Never be jealous of others, in good or evil

I didn't use either of the first two translations above for what, I think, should be obvious reasons.  Simply sticking with "never be jealous" means that you should never be jealous no matter what!  I would have thought that the word "never" in the maxim would imply to most people (who have even a modicum of common sense) that you should never be jealous "no matter the situation" or to never be jealous "of others".  Because never means never!  But maybe I should have translated the maxim as "no matter what the situation, and no matter who is involved, and no matter what negative emotions that come up, NEVER be jealous!"

Once again, never means never.

I found the last translation in Richard Collins's excellent book (which I've commented upon in other posts) No Fear Zen: Discovering Balance in an Unbalanced World.  I do like this translation, even though I decided upon not using it, simply because it adds a dimension to jealousy that some practitioners may not think about.  At some point in our lives, we have probably been jealous of someone for the good fortune that person has, even if the benefits that person is enjoying is due to his/her vices, and not their virtues.  As bad as jealousy is by itself, it could lead to even worse emotions - and could produce some truly bad karma - if your jealousy leads you to model your behavior after someone who has "earned" his/her success through "evil" means.  "If I want to be successful in that industry, then I will have to be just as ruthless as her!" is NOT the kind of thoughts you want to harbor, especially if those thoughts lead to "ruthless" actions.

I'm unsure how many samurai or budo writers have written about jealousy, but it's commonly discussed in Zen and Buddhist literature.  The great Indo-Tibetan master Atisha's lojong ("mind training") slogans, written in the 11th century, includes "Don't be jealous" as the 57th of its 59 slogans.  Commenting upon this particular lojong teaching, Buddhist writer Judy Lief has this to say:

"Working with this slogan does not mean that you should not notice that some people have more than you do—more money, more power, more ability, more friends, more realization, more intelligence, more creativity, more teachings, more all sorts of things. The idea is to keep the clarity of that observation, but not let it tailspin into fits of jealousy and envy.

Jealousy can be a real cop out: it gives you a good excuse not to relate to your situation as it is. It is entertaining: you can muse about how much easier it would all be if you had whatever that other person has. Jealousy can deflate your confidence: in comparison to all those lucky ones, your situation seems to be so poverty-stricken and hopeless. Jealousy feeds self-absorption and makes you feel like a big ball of resentment and petty-mindedness."*

*From Tricycle, The Buddhist Review, in the article "Train Your Mind," June 2011 issue