Status Envy

Post Eight: Envy:

CHAPTER 9: STATUS ENVY

 When I was growing up, if you’d asked me or any of my friends what our favorite film was, the unanimous answer would have been “The Wizard of Oz”. We knew all the dialog and had all the songs memorized. But strangely enough, known of us really understood what it was actually about.

            As many times as we’d seen it, we all missed the fact that this was the story of people who were on a desperate quest for something they already had. That film perfectly illustrated the all-too-common mistake of searching outside ourselves for something we already have inside. We didn’t get that message because it was such a foreign concept to us. Happiness, we were taught, comes from something outside; from the approval of others; from material things; from money. We were steered toward placebos.

            But as we grow, having things just isn’t enough anymore. We need to have more than everyone around us. Keeping up with the Jones’ was passé and we now need more than the Jones’ or we felt inadequate. You can never be too rich and if the person next to you has something you don’t have, you need to get it too, or you’re a lazy slacker.

            The modern term is “Status Envy”. We believe he who dies with the most toys wins. If you’re not first you’re last. It’s all envy! Envy is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Green Eyed Monster. But sadly, we are slow to learn. We only see what we don’t have. Thankfully, our practice exists to help us understand what we have to do.

            People are willing to humiliate themselves on reality TV shows, sacrificing their dignity just for the attention and bragging-rights of having been on television. (As if all celebrities were happy and well adjusted)  These people would be happier if could just realize that they didn’t need the vindication of the TV audience. Everyone is special, even if he/she doesn’t win AMERICAN IDOL. To quote a song lyric, “Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn’t already have”. Similarly, attention and applause don’t give you anything you don’t already have.

            Why do we punish ourselves with envy? Why do we feel “He’s rich so I have to be richer or he’s better than I am”? Buddhism teaches us to focus our attention on what we have instead of what we don’t have. The Minquassi Inians believe, “If you see no reason to give thanks for what you have, the fault lies in yourself”, while the Arapho say “Take only what you need”. In a world where we’re trained to be fulfilled only by the material things around us and the attention that others give us, seekers ask for the awareness and enlightenment to appreciate the greater gifts we already possess. We hope that future generations will understand this better and spend less time looking for the Wizard.