Lots of happiness, lots of contentment, lots of strength, lots of equanimity. You name it, keep going down the list, you're probably going to improve everything.
Self-pity is a killer. Self-pity pulls us down. Self-pity is the opposite of so many good qualities that it is amazing when you have less and less and less of it, the more energy, the more strength you have.
If you can believe how fortunate you are 100 percent of the time, then you'll have zero self-pity. Self-pity cannot exist when a person believes they are very fortunate.
Self-pity always looks at what we don't have, how fortunate we are, looks at what we do have. They are total opposites. So by improving your reflection how fortunate you are and believing it, then your self-pity will automatically go down. Now believing it. That is what you have really got to do. You can sit there for an hour, you can go through everything that you've got fortunate in your life, but if you don't really believe that you're so fortunate, then it doesn't matter how much you're going to repeat those things to yourself. So compare yourself to the rest of the world. Then you really know how fortunate you are.
When I look at my life, when I look at what I used to be like in high-school, I go wow, this is great. I look at my life, I compare it to the rest of the world, I go, "Great!"
What would it be like if you could actually clone people? Take someone like me or Rosemary who has been doing a lot of good for twenty years, what would it be like if you could throw out a million odd ones like us on the whole planet.
And this is a way to look at yourself. Maybe you're not like me and Rosemary but that doesn't matter. Are you a better person today than you were when you started your meditation practice? Are you a better person today, than you were when you left high-school? If you are a better person, then consider, wow, isn't this nice? Isn't this great? Get that Sympathetic Joy going with your own personal growth. Compare yourself to the rest of the world and you will really see how fortunate you are in so many ways.
You have to pump it in there. If you're prone to self-pity thoughts, you have to really, really pump it even harder. However, the pumping alone isn't enough, you have to really believe it. You have to treat it like a court case, you have to treat it like being right there. You are the attorney. For me, I used to think that Perry Mason was a great attorney while I was watching TV. Some of you may remember that show or remember some other great star detective, etc. So imagine some great lawyer walks in there and has to present a case. You have to do this for yourself. You have to present a case for yourself to judge. You are the prosecutor and you're also the judge. Now who is the opposite party, who is this group of people who are going to try to prove you are wrong? Well, that's Mara.
Mara is your enemy. You have to prove to the judge that Mara is wrong and you're right. The more you prove it, the more you bring forth facts, figures, everything you can, you bring forth the truth. The Parami of Truthfulness, for a lot of people isn't strong enough. If you are prone to self-pity, you have to bring the Parami of Truthfulness up to a higher level. You have to be absolutely truthful because Mara is going to lie. Mara is going to say, "No, you don't deserve anything, you are not so fortunate. Oh, yes, yes, you are fortunate, but... You are fortunate however... You are fortunate and all these different cousins of but, however, maybe and perhaps... These "buts" come in a lot for a person who has self-pity. So you have to bring in the truth. Just like in a court case, you have to be very strong as the prosecutor or defender, whichever side you want to take. You can win, though you have to work super hard to defeat your enemy, Mara, with all its lies.
So if you lessen self-pity, you are going to have more and more happiness.