PRIDE AND ENVY - Strange bedfellows!

Speaking Tree, ToI, July 2010

PRIDE AND ENVY – Antidotes To Each Other

Pride and Envy are the two most dangerous pollutants that follow whenever any tiny virtue begins to generate in the mind. They are also the two of the five poisons that slip away the quickest from a mind that is not under constant vigilance. Hence care needs to be exercised not merely in being mindful that they do not surface but the manner in which these defilements can be enslaved or greatly diluted.

Curiously however, it is interesting to know that both these harmful monsters are also antidotes to one another! This fascinating revelation was brought to us by Khenpo Kunzang Palden (1872-1943), a great scholar of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and serves brilliantly in marginalizing the strength of one’s ego.

We need to bear in mind that while we perform the practices, what we do is to exchange our position with those who are inferior or superior to us and put ourselves in that position and meditate unwavering on it. Here we will examine two situations, i.e. someone less well off than us and someone better off than us.

1. PRACTICE OF ENVY ( Antidote to Pride):

To begin the practice, think of those things that you pride in eg. wealth, intelligence, possessions, awards and so on. Now exchange your current state with that of a beggar or tramp. You now become a nobody and from this state allow yourself to feel envious of the ‘other’. The person you are now looking at is wealthy, has many servants, has every comfort of food and clothing. In contrast you are a nobody, a good for nothing repulsive beggar. From this state, you ask him what reason he has to be so arrogant. For he may have a lot more than you but when compared to someone even greater, he is no so great. Likewise, even if you are poor and hungry you are still better off than somebody who is a sick, old or physically incapacitated or blind. We know that rich and poor, high and low, better and worse are all relative terms and not the absolute. You now look up to this arrogant man and say “If you are such a great man, why don’t you try and help me in someway? What good use is your position if you can’t bring some relief and benefit to me? You will only bring upon yourself evil karma for your next life by being so arrogant.” Our past karma decides our present condition. So if we want to have a better future we must be careful of what we do now. Therefore by appreciating the suffering of being poor, untalented and without honour you realize how improper it is to be full of scorn and disrespect. With continuous meditation like this you start to respect those who are less fortunate than you. In this way you can meditate on envy as an antidote to pride.

2. PRACTICE OF PRIDE ( Antidote to Envy):

Here you reverse the roles again as you conduct this practice. You exchange yourself with someone who is far wealthier and greater than you. He has much more of everything than you have. He is the one who has a condescending attitude and looks down upon you. He has far more social standing, money, intelligence, talent and all other qualities. But then the new ‘you’ asks: Why am I being so vicious with someone less fortunate than me. Why is it that my ego and self-cherishing attitude is playing up so much only to push me back into suffering in times and lives ahead? It must dawn upon you that it is faulty to display such pride. When you do encounter people who display such arrogance of offence, you ask yourself “Why is it they are behaving so?” and instead of getting angry and resentful, exchange yourself with them and see if you are doing the same. If you are, then you will be able to know why the person is behaving that way and you will treat him with respect and service rather than with rivalry, indifference and anger. In this way you can meditate on pride as an antidote to envy.

It is true that this may take time to accomplish, but then, so do other worldly things. Moreover, this practice will ensure that you not only lead a life of equanimity in this life but by not accumulating bad karma due to generation of pride and envy, you will ensure for yourself a better realm in the next one.

Girish Deshpande
The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner
lamagirish@gmail.com