According to Osho, the 'ordinary' mind lives in constant comparison, believing others always have something better—house, body, mind—so it burns with jealousy. This belief is a conditioning from childhood. Drop comparison, recognize every person’s uniqueness, and gratitude arises. Without comparison, jealousy dissolves into contentment, self-respect, and appreciation for life’s unpurchasable gifts.
Yes—most people keep comparing and think others have better things, which makes them unhappy; stop comparing and be thankful for what you are.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, do all ordinary people think that others have something more or better than they do?
That's the definition of ordinary people. They are continuously comparing themselves with others. Comparison is their whole life's work. Certainly people have... somebody has a better house, somebody has a better nose, somebody has a better body, somebody has a better mind. There are thousands of things. You can find in every person something better than you. Even a beggar may have something better than you. Just the way he walks may have a grandeur, a carelessness. He has no worries, he has nothing to worry about. He sleeps in the street better than you sleep on the best mattress in the best house. The better the mattress, the worse the sleep. It is very strange but that's how it is, because for sleep what is needed is at least eight hours of hard work. That's the way your physiology is built. It has a built-in program. If you don't…
What is jealousy and why does it hurt so much?
You know your interiority, and only you know it, nobody else. And you know everybody's exterior, and their exterior people have made beautiful. Exteriors are showpieces and they are very deceptive. There is an ancient Sufi story: A man was very much burdened by his suffering. He used to pray every day to God, "Why me? Everybody seems to be so happy, why am only I in such suffering?" One day, out of great desperation, he prayed to God, "You can give me anybody else's suffering and I am ready to accept it. But take mine, I cannot bear it any more." That night he had a beautiful dream -- beautiful and very revealing. He had a dream that night that God appeared in the sky and he said to everybody, "Bring all your sufferings into the temple." Everybody was tired of his suffering -- in fact everybody has prayed…
Osho, what is jealousy? Does our jealousy show that we are very far from aloneness?
This was my routine, that I would always go to the examination fifteen minutes late. This I followed my whole career in school, in college, at university; I would go fifteen minutes late. It was well known. The examiner knew that my seat had to be kept empty; I would be coming, but exactly fifteen minutes late. And I would leave the examination hall fifteen minutes before everybody else, before the end. The time allowed was three hours and I could see that the examination could be managed in two and a half hours; there was no need to waste half an hour more there. The teacher, who was there looking after the students to see that they were not copying and not doing some mischief, that somebody was not concealing a book, would say, "There is no hurry; there are fifteen minutes left. Why are you finishing?" I would…
There is a great difference between longing and desire. Desire is of the mind, longing is of the heart. Desire is greed, longing is not greed. Desire is never fulfilled, it cannot be fulfilled; it always goes on asking for more. But longing can be fulfilled. Everything else that you want in life is a desire. Only when you start longing do you start moving towards god. Only god can be longed for, everything else is a desire. God cannot be desired because he can never be made an object of your thoughts, imagination, ego. When all these have disappeared, when you are no more functioning as a head, when you are overflowing with love, then suddenly, as if a lotus has opened in your heart, a longing opens up. That longing is fragrant, that longing in itself is a tremendous joy.
A friend has asked: Osho, I lack self-confidence; how can it arise?
Only man has gone mad. His doing has become more important than his rest. Why do we act at all? Man acts so that someday he may rest. And the end is that the chance to rest never comes; he ends while still doing. What, then, is the goal? Diogenes is resting, lying in the sand—naked. Alexander has gone to meet him. Alexander says, “Such ease! Such bliss! Still, I ask, if I can do anything for you, tell me.” Diogenes says, “Step a little to the side. The sunlight was coming, and you have become an obstacle. What more can you do? We were perfectly happy—the fresh morning light was falling—and you came in between. Just move aside.” Alexander felt thoroughly baffled. He had thought he would do something for Diogenes—he could have piled up mountains of wealth. And what did Diogenes ask? Alexander said, “Diogenes, you do not…