A Look at Desiderata – Day Three

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

On the surface this is probably the simplest of all the directives in this piece. We have all learned that comparing ourselves with “the Jones” only leads to frustration.

It is easy to see what this suggestion means in the physical realm, but what about the metaphysical?

Here I return, once again, to the importance of knowing myself and being able to be totally honest with myself.

Knowing “who I am” frees me from the need to compare myself to others. Loving “where I am”, removes any tendency to distract myself by following someone else’s path, when it is not consistent with my own.

Comparison is not the same as observation. Comparison feeds our sense of separation.

The greater our investment in the illusion of separation, the further we are from living a peace-filled existence.