"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor's" (Exodus 20:17).
As we have observed in considering the Ten Commandments up to this point, there are many layers of meaning. From a purely moral point of view the commandments are codes for improving conduct and also for changing character. However, from a metamoral point of view they contain hidden keys for modifying consciousness.
To break through to the inner meaning of the tenth commandment, we must rescue the word covet from its totally negative implication. It is ry an interesting word, coming from the same root as cupid. It means love or passion. In modern usage covetousness means inordinately desirous, greedy, avaricious. However, in the purest sense, the sin is not in coveting, but in that which is coveted.
In the Beatitudes, true to His form as an iconoclast, Jesus turns this commandment around: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6). In a very real sense this means “blessed are those who covet righteousness."
To covet means to desire, to long for, to want passionately—which of itself is certainly not wrong. If we are established in the consciousness of the first commandment, summed up most effectively in the words of the Shema, "The Lord God is One," then we covet the realization of oneness, and we should do so. We covet the inner kingdom and desire with all our hearts to get in the flow, and this, too, is an important state of consciousness. The promise is: Hunger and thirst for oneness with the flow, and you will be filled. Positive covetousness!
The great tragedy of humanity is the delusion that life is lived from outside-in. Our whole conditioning from infancy onward is to believe that whatever it is that we may want or need, it is "out there." It becomes a fixation: the love we hunger for will come with the right person; the guidance we seek may be found in some book or course of study or psychic or seer; the health we desire may be ours in the different climate or the new diet or from the charismatic healer. Also, we hunger and thirst (covet) for the car, the house, the job, the marriage partner . . . all "out there"—not really for their sake, but for what we are deluded they will bring us: acceptance as "a virile male," "an attractive woman," "a successful business person," etc. But unfortunately the very act of coveting things "out there" shuts us off from the inner flow.
This is why Jesus insisted that the rich young man needed to let go of his accumulations, or at least prove his willingness to do so. For unless he could give them up, he did not really possess them—he was being possessed by them. It is an important test to give ourselves in relation to our own accumulations: "Do I really have these things? Or do they have me?"
One of the negative by-products of Western materialism is that money has become the goal of human existence . . . a god that is worshiped and coveted. It could be said that most personal and international conflicts arise out of envy, jealousy, and selfishly desiring that which belongs to others—normally money or that which is made possible by money.
This covetousness is creatively exploited by promoters, advertisers, and motivational researchers—a whole industry devoted to getting people to covet things enough to go out and buy (usually on credit) what they can ill-afford and do not need. Every home contains many items that are the fruits of covetousness, which came out of overbuying to gain "middle-class prestige," or to cater to an inordinate passion to possess, and reflecting a deep sense of inadequacy or insufficiency. Covetousness, when centered in the external of life, is a kind of "mental gluttony."
This commandment, "You-shall not covet," was intended as a restraining fence to morally inhibit one who has not become spiritually aware. It says, "You must not look out into the world for your good." But as the person becomes spiritually mature, he discovers that the flow of his good is from within. Now he does not refrain from looking hungrily "out there" just because the commandment prohibits it, or because God is saying "No! No!" He knows that there is an abundance for all. "One God, one substance, one creative Mind, one perfect life." And he is always and forever one with that One. The moral restraint gives way to a metamoral commitment.
In the rich lore of the East there is a story of a teacher who wanted to demonstrate the need to "hunger and thirst for righteousness." He took his student out into the ocean and thrust his head under the water, holding it there until his lungs were bursting. The teacher let him up, and while the student gasped for air, he was asked, "When you were under water, what did you want more than anything else?" "Air," cried the student, "I wanted air!" "Then," said the teacher, "when you want the experience of God as you just now wanted air, you will experience the awakening."
The ideal of the tenth commandment is not so much to stop coveting, but to turn the focus of our attention from the without to the within. Our desire to have becomes a desire to be. We hunger and thirst, not for things, or power, or the titillation of the senses, but for a merging of the self with the divine flow—not for someone to possess and be loved by, but for a fulfilling releasement of the flow of love.
The Truth is, there is a divine action within that is always working to reveal to us and express through us that which makes for prosperity and fulfillment. Jesus said it clearly: "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Your desire for any good thing is your intuitive feeling that it is already prepared for you if you can just "let." But when your mind turns to envy of others and to coveting what they have, the tendency is to frustrate the natural flow within yourself.
The coveting of things or power or relationships "out there" is like getting caught up in shadows. For what you see in the lives of others is the result of the flow of God through them. Where you see great creativity or power or wealth in the life of another person, it should give you hope that there is a flow. What God has done, God can do. Or, as we sing, "What He's done for others. He can do for you."
Whenever you feel the twinges of covetousness, or jealousy, it is an intuitive sense of the divine action knocking at the door of your consciousness. It is saying, "I am here. Let me come in." Recall the allegory of Revelation: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20).
There is abundance for all. It is like the shining of the sun. Every person in all the world can sun himself and there is enough for all. The supply of God is infinite and limitless. That which you see "out there," wherever or whatever it is, you can demonstrate in your own life, if you are willing to furnish the consciousness through which it may appear.
Instead of centering your attention "out there," which gives rise to the inordinate desire to have it for yourself, get your thought centered within yourself, realizing that the kingdom of God, the all-sufficient resource, is within you. Set about building the consciousness by which you can accept that which you find yourself desiring.
If covetousness has been a problem with you, turn to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and read Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 25-34. In this amazing treatise He says, if you are overly concerned about things "out there" look to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Note how easily and abundantly they are supported. Should we assume that we are less important than they are in the divine plan? "But seek first his kingdom If and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" (Matthew 6:33). Very simply this means: Seek first to know who you are, to disidentify yourself from beliefs in limitation and inadequacy, to get the realization that you are a child of God, heir to all the fullness of the divine flow. When you are centered in that flow, all that you have yearned for in the world will come to you . . . and even more.
There is another aspect of this commandment that could easily be neglected. As students of this new insight in Truth we may assume that we are beyond materialistic covetousness, for we are working with spiritual law. But there is a great deal of "metaphysical coveting." This comes through the widespread materialization of the spiritual laws of prosperity. Through techniques of "demonstration" it is assumed that one can have anything he can "treat" for. There is a subtle rationalization of our old covetous ways, simply "putting new wine into old wineskins." We may well be on the same old path of coveting everything we see. Of course, now we feel very righteous about the fact that we are working with spiritual law to acquire the things. And since we are heirs to God's kingdom, it is right that we have anything and everything! Or so we feel.
This is not to say that we cannot achieve our goals in this way. For we certainly can demonstrate the cars, furs, diamonds, and marriages that we pray for. However, if these things are realized without a recentering of our consciousness, they may well come forth at the expense of our spiritual growth, and not at its expanse.
It is like riding the merry-go-round where we clutch for the brass ring, which entitles us to a free ride, on which we clutch for more brass rings to have still more rides. There may be a restless urge to be where the action is . . . and we are deluded by the playing of the calliope that the center of life is on the whirling carousel. And yet, secretly we long to get off and walk on . . . in the full experience of life and growth. How sad it is that, for many persons in the materialistic emphasis of metaphysical study, spiritual growth is equated with the demonstration of things.
In our Western culture we are conditioned with a competitive view of life. All through our growth years we are made to compete: for grades in school, for jobs, for advancement, for awards and recognition. And the motivational researchers plan whole sales campaigns around this competitive theme. They say, in effect, "If you drive this car you will be looked up to. You will be better than others."
This same competitive feeling carries over into our spiritual seeking. Students are often motivated to "make demonstrations" to keep up with the demonstrations the Joneses have made. Every student might be well advised to reflect on the wisdom of the Oriental axiom, "Seek not to be superior to other persons, but to be superior to your former self." In other words, get off the competitive treadmill.
It is a natural human tendency to want what another person has. This influence may be seen all through life as the person evolves from the infant to the adult: he desires the rattle . . . or the wagon . . . or the school grades . . . or the jobs . . . or the salaries . . . or the marriage . . . or the retirement benefits of others. It is a continuing cycle of covetousness. What we need to realize is that the envy is caused by the desire to be like the other, for we think that what he has is the reason for what he is. You cannot be someone else . . . or even be like him. You can only be you. You can never be happy in any situation based on imitation.
It is this aspect of covetousness that leads to conformity, to acquiescence in the mores and styles and standards of the day, reducing our lives to dull monotones. So we slavishly fall in step with all the fads and current "rages." Covetousness thus becomes uninventiveness. Man is a creative creature, but envy and covetousness lead to a loss of originality, uniqueness, and creativity.
So . . . a very important facet of the tenth commandment, when it is broken down, is this: Don't try to be like others. Be original! Be you! You will always be a far greater success as you than as the best possible imitation of anyone else.
We tend to follow the patterns of the world because we have believed that life is to be found "out there," fulfillment is to be experienced "out there," love will come along "out there," and money and success are to be achieved "out there." There is a ceaseless quest for the elusive "Holy Grail" "out there." We assume that when it is acquired or experienced, all will be well. Thus we spend our lives in the futile search for that which can only be found within.
Russell Conwell's classic essay, Acres of Diamonds, addresses itself to this very problem. He tells of a South African farmer who worked for years on a spread of extremely rocky soil which yielded only the most meager of crops. He would pick up pieces of large rock and curse them as he threw them aside. Finally, in despair, he sold his place for a pittance and left to find greener pastures elsewhere. Many years later he returned to discover that what had once been his farm had become the Kimberley Diamond Mines, the richest plot of ground in all the world. And those rocks that had so hampered his farming were actually huge diamonds in the rough.
"The place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5 ). Wherever you are, you are in the center of the divine flow. The great need is to take time to get yourself centered in it. If you review all the commandments up to this point, you will discover that they all deal with the distractions that lure us away from our center . . . and with ways by which we can return. They all lead back to the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before me." You are one in the One. And, in this center within you, you have access to all there is in God.
It is strange how persons on the spiritual quest are often deluded with the belief that the great awakening will be experienced "out there." The tendency is to run off to shrines and holy places and masters, seeking to find the ultimate of spiritual achievement. The old hymn sings, "Not somewhere else, but where thou art." The flow of Spirit is nowhere if it is not in you. You must become your own guru and release your own divine fire.
An extremely important key to dealing with covetousness is appreciation. Appreciate what you have and what you are. This does not mean to become self-satisfied. Divine discontent is a fundamental of human nature. To become satisfied with oneself is to block the divine flow. But there must be self-acceptance. Accept what you are and where you are as the best and only starting points from which to go forward to express the more that is in you.
Plato says that the grateful heart is the great heart that eventually attracts to itself great things. Count your blessings! Consider what you have and ponder how much you might strive for it if you did not have it. Then realize how truly fortunate you are. Stir up the attitude of gratitude which is imperative to keep centered in the flow.
Appreciate people for what they are and for what they have. Instead of letting your mind run to jealousy and envy over what they are and have, acknowledge that they are in the flow. Be grateful that they are demonstrating that there is a flow, and that it is manifesting in them as it can do in you. When you see things in the world that interest you and excite you—the houses, cars, jewels, and relationships—experience them instead of coveting them.
A man regularly passed a store on Madison Avenue on his walk to work. One day there was a beautiful painting in the window that caught his eye. He was absolutely struck by it. Every day for many weeks he would stop in front of the store to admire this work of art. It became a highlight of his day. Then one morning the painting was not in the window. It was a shock. He went in to inquire, and he discovered that it was about to be sold. However, the owner gave him an opportunity to purchase it, which he did. He took it home, feeling ecstatic with his new treasure. But where to display it? For weeks he tried the painting on various walls and in various settings. Somehow it was out of place. It just did not fit. In time he came to resist it. All the enjoyment that he had received from it was gone, so he made a decision. He would dispose of it. However, he could not bring himself to sell it. He donated it to an art gallery which was so delighted to have this classic painting that it was given a lovely setting. Now the man goes often to the gallery to see this work of art with great appreciation.
Carlyle says that wealth is the number of things one loves and blesses and by which one is loved and blessed. It is a good slide rule by which to determine how rich you are: All that you love and bless (not covet) and all that actually blesses you. Actually, the greatest riches may not be in your vault at all. If you love and bless the sunset and feel blessed by it, it is yours, along with parks in the spring, the moonlit night, and the glamorous displays on Fifth Avenue. How rich you are if you can only appreciate life!
If there is something that you have been yearning for, make room in your consciousness for it. Accept it. Experience it. Claim it as yours . . . not to possess, but to enjoy, to bless, and be blessed by. When we turn the word covet inside out, we begin to covet the divine flow, seeking it with all our hearts, minds, and souls . . . and we are filled. And the first and most important filling is gratefulness. We are full of greatness, full of gratitude.
Then we are ready, perhaps for the first time, to expand our awareness of life to include the whole. Gibran says that this is what prayer is, the expansion of oneself into the living ethers. Suddenly, we can let go our hungers for this and that and just rejoice that "all that the Father has is mine" (John 16:15). And then we can know for ourselves:
"I live in this great world and it lives in me. I look out on all that I can see 'northward and southward and eastward and westward' and I claim it as mine. Not mine to possess, but mine to experience, to bless and be blessed by. I rejoice that I am alive and living in the divine flow. I am grateful, truly grateful, for all the abundance that is mine.”
We come to the end of our study . . . but every end is a beginning. The Ten Commandments are commended to you for study and reflection. However, the weight of Judeo-Christian tradition notwithstanding, do not keep them. Break the code and find the keys to personal power. I have offered some clues. You will find others. It will be significant only if you make a commitment to work for the changes of consciousness that each commandment suggests.
© 1987, Unity Books
Reprinted with permission.
