ABSTRACT
It has been said about envy that it is the most miserable sin because, unlike the other sins, nobody likes it, the envious person least of all. Envy is resentment and hostility towards someone because of something desirable that the person possesses. It is the tormenting drive to have that which someone else has. You notice that someone else has something that you do not have, and it upsets you greatly. As soon as you have acquired whatever it is and have that thing, you are still not happy. The drive has not abated because that is not the real issue. Envy generally is not about the object or the advantage that provokes the envy. What drives envy is the desire to access something of fundamental value: selfcon®dence, charm, beauty, popularity, and other qualities of the Self. But instead of searching for such inner qualities, these are projected externally, and we might see them everywhere. Envy is not about ownership and material possession, but has a more existential character. That is why the desire has no bottom, no end to it.32 We are not in contact with our own self-value when we are envious.
