Ill Will
I recently wrote a post about judgmental thoughts and the way that they actually make me feel badly about myself. An essay by Gil Fronsdal about ill will really hits the nail on the head. " Being caught up in ill will is itself painful [my emphasis]. It constricts the mind and heart. Our viewpoint can become narrow and hostile. Ill will can predispose us to focus on whatever is undesirable or going wrong. We become more reactive and are more likely to act impulsively. For some people, the discomfort that comes from having ill will is fuel to keep it going; aversion to aversion perpetuates aversion." - Gil Fronsdal, The Hindrance of Ill Will Negative emotions are self-perpetuating : they feed on themselves. Like drinking coffee or eating too much sugar, they produce a kind of excited feeling, and your brain/body tells you "this is good." It's odd, isn't it, that we can have an aversion to something, and our response is to keep thinking about it, to...