Looking for a better term than 'benign envy' or 'mudita'

Often when I'm happy for someone's good fortune or success, I find myself using the words envious or envy.

In casual speech with friends, voice tone and familiarity help deliver my positive intent, but I don't like the negative connotation of the word - especially the part where it intends others harm.

Benign envy is a non-starter for me and mudita is far too obscure to use for my taste, despite being the closest word I know for the sentiment I wish to express.

Am I missing some obvious single words or phrases in more common usage than mudita that express a positive feeling i have that is directly related to the positive feelings of another? Shared joy is the closest literal phrase, but it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue for me.

Here is a simple diagram that maps the the state of two people’s happiness in relation to each other - envy, pity, mudita and schadenfreude. The other 3 words stand well alone and are defined by my happiness in relation to another's, but perhaps this is more that mudita needs to be adopted as schadenfreude has already been.

Am I missing a decent alternative to mudita?

Are you in any way (even slightly) related to the person, or in any way (even slightly) responsible for their happiness? If so, kvell might work for you.

OP's clearly not interested in answers that imply envy, admiration, aspiration, or anything else that would imply he himself would like to have that other person's good fortune. He just wants to describe the empathic pleasure one person can feel, being aware of anothers good fortune. It's one of the reasons we watch tv game shows and talent contests, for example.

Strangley, we don't seem to have a lot of standard terms. Googling for take pleasure in another's pleasure simply ignores the repeated word; millions of results for solo pleasures, and taking pleasure in other's misfortune.

The best I can come up with is vicarious pleasure. Sadly I'm afraid even that's imperfect, because Google just reflects common preconceptions. Many people would assume a vicarious good feeling probably implies that the original pleasure was at the very least naughty, if not downright nasty or even sickening. We are a suspicious species.

Or - as per my earlier comment - just say I'm happy for you. Your friends wouldn't be worth much if they assumed you were only being sarcastic, when you really meant it.

Compersion:

an empathetic state of happiness and joy experienced when another individual experiences happiness and joy.

My thesaurus had a few good hints:

• aspire to
• wish for
• look up to

Extending to phrases or sentences, you can say something like the following:

Ah, what fortune! One day, my ship will come in.

Congratulations! If only I knew your secrets...

May your success spread to those you love

That being said, envious is perfectly acceptable to express desire without intending harm. I happen to like your example of benign envy and will use it in the future. Of course, as you mention, delivery makes all the difference:

Wow, now that makes me envious...

One trick is to attach the envy to a non-specific third-party or collective group or to refer to the fortunate one as being the envy:

Ah ha, with this success you will be the envy of your colleagues.

All the world will watch with envy

But this does drift back into the vibe of ill will. Replacing envy with aspire to or aspiration works:

Ah ha, your success will be the aspiration of your colleagues.

All the world will aspire to be as you

Well, what you have is admiration for that person. That means that you aspire to be in their position but don't mean any harm to them. Quite different from envy.