Dosa

Aversion, hostility, rejection. Dosa (Pāli, equivalent to dveṣa in Sanskrit) is the second of the three unwholesome roots (akusala mūla), alongside lobha (greed) and moha (ignorance).

Dosa is the force that pushes to reject, hate, attack. It manifests as anger, resentment, envy, contempt, fear. It is the opposite of mettā (loving-kindness): where dosa contracts, mettā expands; where dosa separates, mettā connects.

In the Dhammapada: na hi verena verāni sammantītha kudācanaṃ — “hatred never ceases with hatred; it ceases with non-hatred, that is the eternal law.” Dosa feeds itself: responding with aversion to aversion generates more aversion. Only mettā and understanding (paññā) can interrupt the cycle.

In classical yoga, dveṣa appears as the fourth kleśa (YS 2.8): aversion toward pain, arising from the memory of past suffering. The structure is symmetrical: rāga seeks to repeat pleasure, dveṣa seeks to avoid pain. Both are grasping — one by attraction, the other by repulsion.