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Learning to be Grateful for the Good Fortune of Others
Part 1

"Every action, thought and feeling
is motivated by an intention,
and that intention is a cause
that exists as one with an effect.
If we participate in the cause,
it is not possible for us not to participate in the effect."
- Gary Zukav
The Seat of the Soul

Deep. I had to read it more than once. And ponder.

Cause and Effect. A universal truth. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," Newton's Third Law of Motion. You can't touch without being touched.

We do things. We think. We feel. At the root of each of these, there are intentions. Websters defines intentions as "purpose or attitude toward the effect of one's actions".

Just as matter and energy interact in the physical world - with measurable impact and influence, souls and spiritual energy interact in the same manner.

At the root of intention is attitude. Attitude drives purpose, and purpose brings the words and actions that are 'measurable'. What we see and hear and read and say are the surface actions. They are the natural outgrowth of attitude.

The challenge is to pay close attention to our intentions. If the law of cause and effect applies to our intentions, and it does, then if we act with good and joyous intentions, good and joyous effects will follow. If we participate in the cause, we will also participate in the effect.

When you grasp the full potential of this spiritual law, you immediately take stock of your own attitudes and intentions.

We are conditioned from an early age to compete and to fear that another's gain means our loss. It happens with grades in school, games on the playground, competition for jobs and mates and recognition. Competition is not inherently bad. Challenge and striving for success are not bad. What is bad, though, is a feeling of fear or lack or resentment that another will win and we will lose.

It is common for people to secretly rejoice at another's failure, or to be jealous of or resent another's success. The basis of these feelings is fear, or the feeling that when someone else gains, there is 'less' for me. These feelings come from the perspective that the Universe is a limited, limiting place, without enough to go around. This attitude is the basis of intention, and you will think and say - even do things to build yourself up at the expense of another. These feelings are intentions - they are causes of fear and hurtful thoughts and actions - and just as you create the cause, you bring their effects home to roost in your life.

Trust me... this is not the life you want. It's an endless cycle of lack and fear, and even when you win and rejoice, it's hollow - because you know your secret thoughts (a source of guilt) and imagine someone (like you) who is hateful about it and waiting for you to stumble.

This thought pattern can be unlearned. You can replace it with intention that brings the effects of joy and plenty into your life instead. If you can learn to experience genuine happiness for the good fortune of others, the cause of your intention will multiply the effect of happiness and blessings in your own life.

The steps are simple, but challenging: the first is an end to comparison. The second is seeing your own blessings, and the third is rejoicing in good.

- to be continued -

-Victoria Monfort