Rejoicing in Others

   It is not so easy to practice rejoicing in the success of other beings, unless one feels secure and confident in one's own nature. I was thinking about this today, and I realized that rejoicing in others requires a grounding in one's own being, a kind of inner confidence that doesn't necessarily come from external things. In order to really see the value and meaning of celebrating others' success, one needs to also view the celebration itself as one's own success. How is it successful to be able to celebrate others just as we would celebrate our own goals? I recall Venerable Guo Xing sharing that the real 'success' in work is not to succeed over others, but rather to succeed in overcoming one's dualistic thinking, or tendency to divide oneself from others. If one accepts that all the beings are really part of one's mind, then there is always rejoicing in others, and no need to separate.
    Of course, there are different examples out there, especially in Chan, which suggest metaphorically what true mind is, and how it includes all phenomena. Perhaps my favorite of all is the metaphor of water and waves, where 'waves' represent the rising and falling of phenomena, while water represents the essence of all phenomena. It's somewhat like what I observed momentarily on the bus this morning. While I was gazing around at others in the morning ride to work, I reflected that whatever I am feeling about the people around me, that very thought is coming from the immediate and direct awareness. The feeling does not 'belong' to the other person. How can that person 'give' me that feeling? All the feelings come from the same source, and are in a constant state of change or flux. If one realizes this, there is no room to say, 'this is mine' and 'that is yours'. If someone scores a promotion or a special role that you had hoped for, you can contemplate: where exactly is 'you' and where is the other person? Both the sense of my bounded self (this body) and the other are beheld in the same field of witnessing. Can this 'witness' be said  to be 'this body' and not 'that person'? Actually, both in fact are arising within the same field of mind. If I extend this way of seeing, I can no longer really say that 'this body' doesn't receive the reward, and therefore 'I" lost to someone else. That decision to see things as separate is entirely my decision, and it's what sets in motion the insecurity of struggling in this body for certain desired states of being, including fame or status, or security.
    When I say these things, do I suggest that people should never feel insecure about their jobs or livelihoods? I still believe that what people do has consequences, and in that sense, there is something acting upon the environment to achieve desired or needed ends. But when a person mistakes this desired result with the body being a separate entity, that's when a lot of anxiety arises.  If a person can relax into the understanding that they are simply never separate entities (and never were, for that matter), this kind of self would be more flexible to seek resolutions not by isolating themselves but by seeing their  interconnection to others. There could also be an understanding that even if one has to suffer momentarily, it doesn't mean that one is condemned to isolation, and there are always supports on one's path. Most importantly, by not trying to compare what I have or don't have with others, I can find a deeper source of confidence which goes beyond gaining worldly things such as money and status. This deep confidence ironically arises from an insight into the always changing and shifting nature of the self, and how it is so connected with other beings.