Longing and illwill

Greeting forum ,

Tanha or longing are opposite of vyapada or illwill , right ? Are both of same or different category ? Is it appropriate to regard vyapada as a kind of tanha . Please explain .

Thanks in advance

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Welcome to the forum Virya! :pray:t4::bouquet: Thank you for your question.

According to the PTS dictionary
vyāpāda
Is “ making bad, doing harm: desire to injure, malevolence, ill-will”…the opposite would be non-ill-will or avyāpāda

On the other hand tanha
Is generally translated as “ thirst”, “ craving”,” wanting” etc…a sense on desiring……not necessarily as something “good” or non-ill-will.
Yes, we can long for “good” things, like wishing someone good health or good fortune.

But we can have tanha for bad things too, we can long for something bad to happen to someone we don’t like, for example.
(I don’t know the Pāli word for the opposite of tanhā…? Help anyone :pray:t4:)

So I don’t think they are related as opposites as you describe.

But I see how ill-will can be a type of craving, or a desire for harm or aversion against something/someone/a state of being….but that’s just my interpretation :hugs:

There are many knowledgeable users on the forum who can help you!

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How I see is that craving is more fundamental.

Usually, it is sensual desire/lust which is paired with ill-will. As these 2 are the factors eradicated by non-returners.

Sensual desire is very much tied up with ill will, when we don’t get what we want, we resent the things which prevents us from getting what we want.

Also the proper opposites to ill will is metta, good will, loving kindness, and the proper opposite to sensual desire is renunciation. To lust, it can be seeing repulsiveness/ugliness (for the renunciation of lust).

Yet, a non-returner can have craving. Craving for form realm, formless realms.

In terms of 3 types of craving, craving for sensual desires, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming. A rough match can be craving for sensual desires= sensual desires, craving for non-becoming (in terms of suicide) can be aversion towards self (ill-will).

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@Ficus @NgXinZhao
Thks to both .
Can tanha be categorised under lobha ? And vyapada under dosa and dosa under lobha ? Is dosa the opposite of lobha ?

I think it’s:

lobha and dosa are subsets of tanha. Yes, vyapada is part of dosa.

Opposite in terms of good, no. I say it’s more of pairings for dosa and lobha, they usually come together. If you don’t have attached love for the girl, you can’t hate the girl after rejection/ breaking up/ divorce. Opposite usually denotes the good/ wholesome counters to these unwholesome states.

Lobha and dosa are two roots of defilements , but are Tanha root of defilements ?

Not necessarily , if a muslim or christian doesnt know about buddhism and never like buddhism they still can hate it .

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On roots…

Lobha and dosa both require the delusion as their base.

Ignorance is what enables delusion of not seeing impermanence, suffering, not self.

Ignorance via the dependent origination links conditions craving to arise.

A Muslim or Christian who hates Buddhism might do so out of attachments to their idea of what’s true. They attach to the One true God, which Buddhism doesn’t have any role for it. Or they attach to their own faith, label of religion, fearing to be converted to Buddhism (and miss out on eternal heaven to go to eternal hell), a hatred might be generated to distance themselves from other religions.

It’s my own experience that when I didn’t attach to the label of being a Buddhist, I am not so averse to other faiths. Doesn’t mean I think that they are right, but the value of truth doesn’t have to be linked to emotional response.

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With this you meant craving would includes ignorance lobha and dosa in the link ?

That is non sequitur , your previous premise is the girl being loved therefore being hates . Buddhism as the object of being loved first therefore being hates later doesnt follows .

Tanha (pulling in) and vyapada (pushing away) both require attachment. There is a third option which is to let go.

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7 posts were split to a new topic: What is the Pāli wordfor ‘letting go’?

One doesn’t have to have the same object being attached to to have the same object being aversion to.

Let’s go deeper. Hate/ aversion is towards whatever which we perceive prevents us from what we attach to, we attach to whatever thing because we think that would bring us happiness.

In the case of romantic love, the attachment is to the girl, for mistakenly believing that if only if she would get together with me, I would be happily ever after. The object of hate arises when the relationship cannot be formed. Either towards another suitor, or herself, for she herself denied this happiness towards me.

In the case of religion, the object of attachment is one’s own current faith, which one believes would lead one to eternal happiness if one continues to believe. Say if another person of another faith comes in and claim: everyone should believe in my religion, all others are false, only mine is true. It could be seen as an attempt to separate oneself from the attachment which leads to eternal happiness.

I think it’s very hard to think of craving without greed or hate, as it’s very subtle, non-returner stage then can see it.

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Probably you missed out , earlier you was saying that one has to first get to love the girl then upon break up it turns to hate . But that shouldnt be the case , a person can hate the girl without loving her first . For example , i am capable of hating you without knowing you personally , why , no need to love you in the first place , i have hatreds in myself that may turn towards anyone . If you still dont see the differences , thats ok . Anyway thanks for your responses .

Ah I see.

I think the sentence above is case specific. The case would be a boy gets into relationship with a girl without attachment, so that when the girl breaks it up, he didn’t get upset about it. Can’t hate what you didn’t (attached) love in the first place.

Your example of hating people you don’t know is more likely of one aspect of their personality or what they represent which you hate, due to the view that this part of them causes harm/ suffering to my/the world.

Then it might call for more metta practise. Part of how hate can build up is due to internal suffering, and aversion towards it.

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