Human beings have grown accustomed to the options another may have regarding their behalf and often assign these thoughts with a higher priority than their own thoughts. Although throughout life we are provided with a series of lessons which emphasize to be yourself and consider others opinions as irrelevant, humans are still metacognitively thinking of another’s thoughts. Often accompanied by this behavior is the emotion of jealousy and or envy as a person’s negative opinion can make someone wish they were better. The population despises successful people because they are able to achieve the things others wish they were able to and the direct response to this anger and jealousy. Envy consumes the souls of every living being on earth, whether …show more content…
Within the story is a fable passed on by a Chinese proverb, the name of this tale is the stone-cutter. The story depicts a tired and overworked stone-cutter, an average person and during his tiresome work, he sees a merchant carried by his disciples and is instantly envious of him. Time passes and the stone-cutter becomes a merchant, but is still unable to resolve the emptiness he feels inside because he is lesser to another individual. A high official passes him in the street one evening and the merchant once again has the feeling of total envy and wishes to be the high official himself. After a passage of time he becomes the “high official” only to find nothing but more envy. The stone-cutter’s envy eventually results in him becoming a rock, which is all-powerful and unbothered by all of earth’s elements. Consumed with power he begins to ponder how great his life is as he is the most powerful thing on the planet and during his mind wandering, he is struck with a blunt object and feels himself being destroyed. He begins to think what could possibly destroy an all-powerful rock and when he looks up, he sees the figure of a stone-cutter above him. The moral of the story being that you can only find happiness within yourself, if you live life for others you lose yourself in the process, the key to happiness is