Coincidences are interesting. Two weeks back I was having an argument with a friend about the difference in the meaning of compassion and empathy. Few days after that one of my close friends from my engineering college sent a note.
"You asked me once in college, "when was the last time you felt happiness?" I said, "when i got into Infosys in campus selection". You said, "every other day some one else or other gets a job. Imagine if you can feel similar happiness when others get jobs as well. Wouldn't it feel great?"
That was one of the best advices I have ever got."
I have completely forgotten this conversation and it was like a new advice for myself as well. I mused on it and remembered my uncle (my father's elder brother). He is one of the very few guys I have met in real life who would get genuinely overjoyed at the good fortune of just about anyone! Then I thought what is this emotion? I tried to find a word for it. I searched a few languages and none seem to have a word for it. If we describe it as "feeling joy at the good fortune of others" then the antonym of this is simple. Its jealousy. I asked many people about the antonym of jealousy. No one had an answer.
It was a shock. We as a culture have developed very complicated emotions and thought processes but we lack a word for this emotion. I ran another simple experiment. Many of my friends are in Bangalore where the local language is Kannada. For daily interaction most of my friends have picked up a few Kannada words. It was surprising that "all" of them knew the Kannada for NO (which is "illa") but hardly anyone (not even many who have stayed in the city for decades) knew the Kannada for YES (which is "haudu").
Finally I found a word which represents the exact opposite of jealousy. Its MUDITA, a Pali word from Buddhism. Just thinking of the meaning of the word feels blissful. It has been prescribed as an emotion which can reduce all other negative emotions. And like every other aspects of Buddhism this has also been developed in a very scientific manner. There are prescribed set of steps and practices which have been prescribed to help develop "mudita".
How beautiful it would be if we can vicariously feel the joy of every person. Whatever gives us joy we can try to find people experiencing the same feeling and try to draw joy from it. And there is no dearth of people feeling blissful (for fractions of second) every second. Like Emelie counting the number of orgasms in Paris in an instant which mounts up to 15!
"You asked me once in college, "when was the last time you felt happiness?" I said, "when i got into Infosys in campus selection". You said, "every other day some one else or other gets a job. Imagine if you can feel similar happiness when others get jobs as well. Wouldn't it feel great?"
That was one of the best advices I have ever got."
I have completely forgotten this conversation and it was like a new advice for myself as well. I mused on it and remembered my uncle (my father's elder brother). He is one of the very few guys I have met in real life who would get genuinely overjoyed at the good fortune of just about anyone! Then I thought what is this emotion? I tried to find a word for it. I searched a few languages and none seem to have a word for it. If we describe it as "feeling joy at the good fortune of others" then the antonym of this is simple. Its jealousy. I asked many people about the antonym of jealousy. No one had an answer.
It was a shock. We as a culture have developed very complicated emotions and thought processes but we lack a word for this emotion. I ran another simple experiment. Many of my friends are in Bangalore where the local language is Kannada. For daily interaction most of my friends have picked up a few Kannada words. It was surprising that "all" of them knew the Kannada for NO (which is "illa") but hardly anyone (not even many who have stayed in the city for decades) knew the Kannada for YES (which is "haudu").
Finally I found a word which represents the exact opposite of jealousy. Its MUDITA, a Pali word from Buddhism. Just thinking of the meaning of the word feels blissful. It has been prescribed as an emotion which can reduce all other negative emotions. And like every other aspects of Buddhism this has also been developed in a very scientific manner. There are prescribed set of steps and practices which have been prescribed to help develop "mudita".
How beautiful it would be if we can vicariously feel the joy of every person. Whatever gives us joy we can try to find people experiencing the same feeling and try to draw joy from it. And there is no dearth of people feeling blissful (for fractions of second) every second. Like Emelie counting the number of orgasms in Paris in an instant which mounts up to 15!
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