John 3:29 · World English Bible
He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.
Disciples had come complaining that the crowds were drifting to another teacher, and the man they complained to was glad about it. One who does not need to be the center can be delighted by another's flowering, and that delight is larger than anything possession offers.
From the Indian Guru reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
AWARENESS
Disciples had come complaining that the crowds were drifting to another teacher, and the man they complained to was glad about it. One who does not need to be the center can be delighted by another's flowering, and that delight is larger than anything possession offers.
Ego measures everything by what it holds, so it fights for the bride, the crowd, the credit. Standing outside, hearing a voice, and being full because of it is the state where the false center has already gone. Fullness of that kind cannot be added to, because nothing was being accumulated.
Indian Guru lens
Whose flowering could you be glad about today, with nothing of it belonging to you?
Sympathetic joy, mudita, is one of the four boundless states a person is told to cultivate deliberately. It is the exact opposite of the quiet comparison that spoils so much good news.
Because the sage does not contend, nothing in the world can contend with him. Where there is no claim staked, there is nothing left to lose in a rivalry.
He reminds himself that credit is not his to own and that the work goes on with or without his name on it. Doing the thing well is the whole reward.
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Indian Guru