VISHUDDHI
A SMALL STORY:
A MAN RETURNED TO HIS NEIGHBORHOOD AFTER ALMOST 10 YEARS. HE WENT AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD WITH HIS FRIEND AND WAS SURPRISED TO SEE THE MANY C H A N G E S I N T H E P L A C E . H E C O M M E N T E D T O H I S F R I E N D , 'PROSPERITY HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF THIS WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD!'
THE FRIEND REPLIED, 'NO, NOT PROSPERITY, JUST PLAIN JEALOUSY.'
Vishuddhi Chakra - Overview
The vishuddhi chakra is located in the throat region. It is locked by comparison and jealousy and made to flower by expressing our individuality, uniqueness and creativity.
We always compare ourselves with others and feel jealous if we think they have more than we do: more attention, more money, more intelligence, good looks, etc. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit.
If we lined up all the people in the world in order of their accumulation of wealth, we would probably place ourselves somewhere in the middle of this line. We have two choices: we can look ahead at all the people who have more money than us and feel jealous, or we can look at the line of people behind with less money, and feel grateful. It is up to each one to choose how we will respond to the situation. We will feel happiness or sadness, depending on which part of the line we are observing. When we can look at either side of the line but not be affected by what we see, we can see clearly what we have, what others have, and feel fulfilled within us.
Jealousy is often created by 'borrowing desires'. For example, we might be perfectly content with the car we drive until we see our neighbor pull up in a new, flashier car. What seemed alright a moment ago is now seen as inferior. Suddenly we feel we cannot be content unless we also acquire a new and expensive vehicle. The problem is, we have been blessed to fulfill our own desires, but not to fulfill desires borrowed from others. This borrowed desire is what we call greed. We cannot fulfill our greed because there is no end to it.
The reason we are always chasing desires is because we are not centered in ourselves. We do not feel complete in ourselves and think that acquiring more and better material possessions or better looks or intelligence is going to make us feel happy.
The nature of man is to run after bliss without realizing that bliss is his very nature. Eventually, we need to discover that we have everything we need and stop chasing and comparing. As soon as we think someone has more than we do, we are thrown off-center and start to feel jealous. This is really a manifestation of low self-esteem.
The key is to start to accept yourself as you are and appreciate your own unique and individual characteristics. Analyzing your desires to see which are true for you is a good start. Awareness is the key. Meditation will develop awareness and stillness so that you can experience your own center. Then all of the energy locked up in comparison and jealousy will be available for your own growth. You will then have the experience of cosmic energy and the confidence and fulfillment which comes from knowing that your own unique contribution is more than enough.
Understanding Comparison
We always compare ourselves with others and more often than not we feel what others have or what they have achieved is more than what we have and we start feeling jealous. When we are not able to bear others' excellence, we get jealous. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit!
Can you compare a lion and a horse? Do you compare yourself with flowers or birds? No! You enjoy their unique beauty, don't you? Each of us also is a unique being. When we realize this, we can enjoy the existence of each of us.
If you concentrate on your own track, you will be continuously progressing and expanding your own capacity. You need to compare yourself with only yourself, never with others. You need to win yourself only by yourself, not by others. Every minute of comparison with others is a waste of time in your own progress.
Note that you always measure yourself with the weakest link in yourself or your performance. This is the trouble. Why do you want to do that? Never measure yourself with the weakest link. You don't have to be egoistic and claim yourself to be something great. But you can have some self-respect and see that you are unique unto yourself.
Please be very clear, any self-esteem that you have that indicates to you that you are less than God is low self-esteem, because you ARE God. That is why I say there is no scope to compare yourself with anyone else.
The process of discovering your infinite intelligence is what life is all about. That is why I always say, 'Life is the path and not any goal.' As your intelligence grows, you will become more joyful and you will be able to play the game of life more effectively. So stop comparing and start discovering the source of your real growth.
When you learn to tap your own intelligence, you will see how irrelevant it becomes to be looking at another's progress or activities. You will see the absurdity of the whole thing. As your intelligence grows, you will understand that each one has to run his own race and not against each other! The real race is towards discovering your infinite intelligence. Where is the scope for comparison to come in?
Daily Awareness Practices
Just lock yourself in a room and analyze how much time and energy you waste in comparison with others; more than 60% I am sure. Especially comparison and jealousy can sap your energy like nothing else can. Your mind can get so busy, working out and calculating how the other person has managed whatever he possesses. Your mind can get so heated up. Your whole system can get sapped because of these unwanted calculations. You can simply drain your energy in no time because of comparison and jealousy.
We are all the time talking about conserving petrol, water and electricity. What about conserving our own energy? What about using our own energy in a proper way? Why are we not conscious of our own energy? We don't see ourselves as blessed with energy, that is the reason.
We are able to see outside sources of energy being wasted because we see the energy in tangible form. Whereas our own energy, we simply dissipate in deep unconscious ways and then complain that we have not been given enough. If you used all your energy for your own expansion, just imagine how much you could achieve. You could simply expand and enjoy with a feeling of liberation. Once you bring awareness to this unconscious drain of energy, you will automatically not invest energy in moments of comparison and jealousy. Then, you will feel a surge of energy in you which you can use for your own growth.
Understanding Jealousy
If you just look into comparison and jealousy deeply and consciously, you will be able to see that it is a mere play of your mind, nothing more than that.
By telling yourself not to feel jealous, you can never come out of it. Only if you bring awareness into the whole thing and understand deeply, it will help.
To overcome jealousy, visualise how jealousy came into your system. Just analyze the sequence of thoughts and emotions in your system and then undo it by reasoning out the whole process with your intelligence.
Darkness does not have a positive existence. You cannot shovel out the darkness. But if light is brought into this room, the darkness will disappear on its own. This is because darkness does not have a positive existence; it has a negative existence. Because it has a negative existence, we cannot simply remove it.
In the same way, comparison does not have a positive existence. It exists only in your mind; it happens only when you exercise a certain thought in your mind. Because comparison does not exist in reality, you cannot overcome it by simply asking it to go away. You can overcome it by bringing in an understanding about it in your mind, just as when you bring in light, the darkness disappears.
Once you understand that jealousy is like a shadow without an object, you will realize how absurd it is and how much it has tormented you. Getting liberation from jealousy is a great liberation in one's life.
Don't condemn the object of your jealousy. Just by condemning the object of jealousy, you will not be liberated from jealousy itself, because the moment you start condemning, it means that there is a wound inside, which you are trying to cover up.
By condemning the object of jealousy, you might be liberated from that particular object of jealousy, but you will simply get fixed onto another object of jealousy, that's all! It is like saying 'sour grapes' and moving on to another vineyard! So, trying to overcome the object of jealousy is not the solution. You need to work on the subject that is you.
Daily Awareness Practices
If you feel that you are holding an emotion that you wish to get rid of, something that you feel is not conducive to your growth, don't resist that emotion. When you resist it, you will only be empowering it more. When you say, 'I should not get jealous', you will be giving the same power to the word 'jealous' as you give to the words 'I should not'. Therefore don't say things like this. Instead, say to yourself, 'Let me be always compassionate towards everyone.' Don't use the word 'jealous' at all. By negating the emotion, you will not achieve what you want. Say something totally positive in the same context, that's all.
Also, instead of avoiding or running away from jealousy, live it through with total awareness. When you try to avoid it, it will confront you at some other time with more intensity than before. Remember one thing with deep awareness, that is enough: jealousy is not your true nature. Society taught you to be jealous.
Just believe that jealousy is not you. That is enough. Then automatically, you will laugh at it instead of being involved in it. When you are able to laugh at it, it means you have started witnessing it instead of being a part of it. The moment you become a witness, it becomes easy to go beyond anything.
If you see that the whole of Existence is nothing but a divine play, you will be able to see that this so-called jealous feeling is also a divine play and has no reality in itself. Just see jealousy objectively instead of being caught in it. It will automatically lose its power over you.