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How Ill-will Affects Our Concentration
Present worries and past fears.
Imagine you just stubbed your toe.
You reel in pain and surprise. You routinely stub your toe on some box when down in the dark basement. If we are anything alike, the first thought that flashes across our mind is some expression of annoyance over stubbing a toe, or maybe a wish that either the box or toes were not there to get stubbed. We know we should just clear a path. But, somehow, our ill-will causes this wisdom to lapse and we return to looking for what we came for.
What Is ill-will?
We had described sensual-desire and restlessness in our previous articles by metaphor of a light-source symbolizing our ability to focus on an object. We had discovered that desire is our light-source’s ability to control a focusing lens that can light up in a room or pinpoint an object inside a box. We had also discovered that restlessness is our own inability to keep the light-source on an object. Within this framework, ill-will would be one of two polar factors of our interest toward an object, which would be the cause of us searching through the dark basement.
Without resorting to a larger metaphor, what is ill-will? Ill-will signifies the aversion one feels toward disagreeable people or things. This aversion manifests as feelings of hate and…
