You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth. (Devarim 5:8)

In the 10 Commandments, right there in the midst of a verse are a few freestanding words that hint at and lend strong support to an idea spelled out explicitly in the Chovos HaLevavos. In the chapter on Serving HASHEM, he cautions against not being busy studying the benefits granted by HASHEM to others. Rather everyone should focus his attention on and celebrate the goodness that HASHEM has showered upon him. To study other people’s blessings can be a huge distraction. It can lead someone away from a posture of gratitude and a sense of duty to HASHEM and awaken cheap feelings of jealousy. We say it jokingly every Friday Night when passing out grape juice to the kids but adults can easily get caught up in the exact same folly on a bigger scale, “Don’t look at how much anybody else got!” I’m not sure how much it really helps but it preempts the overt complaints, “How come he got half a cup?! No fair!”

The Chovos HaLevavos offers this simple cure for envy. It doesn’t eliminate the natural feelings of jealousy that lie dormant in the human personality, but rather it guides and channels those feelings into productivity. The advice is that if you find yourself bitten by this bitter bug, you should find yourself in the company of people who are spiritually more advantageous than you. Then your feelings of jealousy will be attached to trying to catch up with and keep pace with those who are making spiritual advancements. This is a healthy and productive form of competition that will leave you improved. Our Sages say, “The jealousy of scholars increases wisdom.” Seeing someone complete a volume in the Talmud awakens a feeling, “I can do that too!”

Correspondingly, one is advised to be amongst people who are materially less well off. Visit the sick. Go to a poor neighborhood. Spend time in a nursing home. Live amongst the modest. You will then likely feel the blessings of health and well-being.

The most basic ingredients of life will inspire feelings of gratitude and devotion to HASHEM. You will be, as the sign in our kitchen reads, TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED!” This is the blessed advice of the Chovos HaLevavos.

This is all to counter a natural and all too common phenomenon. Whichever new phone or gadget or car we get there’s a newer model coming around the corner. The one that you have is already outdated. It’s old on day one. A person can become frustrated always chasing the newest and the latest and constantly feeling inadequate and deprived.

Correspondingly there’s a tendency to seek out bad news and to study the ugliest behavior of the society around. That is what most of the news is made up of. Why are people so fascinated by it? This may be one part of the answer. As the moral ground around us rapidly falls away and we see more and more decrepit behavior, we feel artificially morally superior just for not having committed those crimes. We may be led to believe that we are advancing when actually we haven’t improved even a little bit. We might even be sliding backwards, but not as rapidly and rabidly as those criminals on the news.

The serenity prayer, authored by Reinhold Niebuhr, recited at AA meetings goes something like this, “HASHEM grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” In many years of meeting with people with serious challenges and frustrations, it too often turns out that the person is trying to serenely accept what he should be courageously changing, and courageously trying to change what he should be serenely accepting. Not knowing the difference between what’s under our control and what’s not within our sphere of influence, can make all the difference.

So, the verse says “to the heavens above and on the earth the land down below”. If you want heavenly advancement, look up, and as for earthly pursuits, look down.