Question

My partner is taking me for granted. What can I do?

Answer

Well, it depends on whether your partner is also a practitioner or not. If they are a practitioner, we could gently remind them of death. However, sometimes this situation can be an opportunity for us to look at our own actions. If we see the painfulness of being taken for granted, then we try not to take our partner for granted, even if they are taking us for granted. Perhaps by showing them how nice it is to be appreciated, perhaps they will appreciate us more. Sometimes the more we expect things from our partner, it leads to expectations on both partners minds, but sometimes the more we show appreciation for the other person it gets kind of catchy.

You know I am kind of fortunate, I have partner who is practicing. He does not take me for granted, so it is quite difficult sometimes to know how to answer these questions. The Buddha talked about the Four Qualities necessary for a healthy relationship. The first one is confidence, to have a similar level of confidence. The second one is to have a similar level of morality. The third is a similar level of generosity, and the fourth a similar level of wisdom. If we and our partner have similar levels of these Four Qualities, then usually harmony will happen in our relationship.

If they are not fairly equal, then problems will arise. So perhaps if you see that your partner does not have as much generosity as you, perhaps you can try to teach them in a way to be more generous, or encouraging their generosity in skillful ways. However, if the qualities are too out of balance and there is too much Dukkha, it may be better to find another partner.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.