Deuteronomy 5:21 · World English Bible
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Abhijjhā: Covetousness Abhijjhā is the mind leaning across a property line. No hand has moved and no ox has been led away, yet the break is complete the moment the eye rests on a neighbor's field and something inside says mine.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Abhijjhā: Covetousness Abhijjhā is the mind leaning across a property line. No hand has moved and no ox has been led away, yet the break is complete the moment the eye rests on a neighbor's field and something inside says mine. Camped on the plain before crossing into a land of houses they did not build, this people receives the one rule no witness could ever testify to.
Taṇhā: Craving Taṇhā is thirst, the pull toward what is not here. Wife, house, field, servant, ox, donkey, and then the counting gives up: anything that is your neighbor's. Thirst has no particular interest in a donkey; the donkey is simply what happens to be standing in the yard when the wanting arrives, and after the donkey there would be something else.
Issā: Envy Issā is the sting felt at another's good fortune. Everything on the list is ordinary until "his" is fastened to it, and then the same animal becomes unbearable. Envy needs closeness: a far-off king's herds cost you nothing, while the ox lowing on the other side of your own wall keeps you awake.
Mamaṅkāra: Mine-making Mamaṅkāra is the habit of stamping mine onto things. Each item carries that same tag, his wife, his field, his ox, and the tag is what makes it burn. Strip the possessives away and you have a house, a field, an animal standing in the sun, and nothing in that picture pulls at anybody.
Indriya-saṃvara: Guarding the sense doors Indriya-saṃvara is watching the place where things come in. Coveting has a doorway, usually the eye going over the fence at the donkey, then lingering, then quietly furnishing a whole life around it. Guarding is not walking around with your head down; it is catching the second look, the one that has started collecting.
Santuṭṭhi: Contentment Santuṭṭhi is being satisfied with what is already in your own yard. After the donkey comes "anything," and contentment is the only thing that stops that list from running forever, since a man at ease with his own animal has nothing to do when his neighbor's walks past. A fence keeps you off another's field; contentment is what makes you willing to stay on your own.
Buddhism lens
Whose life do you keep measuring yours against, and what would it be like to stop?
There is no sickness worse than not knowing when you have enough. Discontent is the whole of the trouble, not the neighbor's things.
Dwell on a thing and attachment forms, from attachment the wanting, from the wanting the burning. It starts with the second look.
Wealth is not having more, it is wanting less. Train yourself to want what you already have and no one else's yard can disturb you.
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