November 6 : Rejoicing in Others’ Good Qualities

Rejoicing in other people’s good qualities is very important. It is not comparing yourself to others. Comparing ourselves to others digs us into a ditch, especially when we are trying to do Dharma practice. “Oh, that person sits better than I do, that person looks better than I do, that person has more faith than I do, that person is smarter, that person has heard more teachings, that person has done more retreats.” Comparing ourselves to others and competing with others is useless in Dharma practice. Just do your practice and when you see good qualities in others, be happy about it, because it is nice that other people have good qualities and are better than us. When you are better than them, so what? Do not make a big deal out of it. Just get out of this whole thing of comparing. We are not having a race to see who gets awakened faster, that is not our motive. Our motivation is to benefit sentient beings. Everybody does that in their own way; we do not need to compete.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!