‘He insulted me, he struck me, he defeated me, he robbed me’: those who harbor such thoughts will not cease in hatred.

This verse describes with surgical precision how resentment feeds on memory. Akkocchi (insulted), avadhi (struck), ajini (defeated), ahāsi (robbed): four verbs in the past that the ego converts into eternal presents, repeating the grievance over and over in the theater of the mind.

Upanayhanti — “those who bind, who link”: resentment is literally a rope with which we tie ourselves to the object of our hatred. We believe our anger punishes the other; in reality it binds us to them more firmly than any physical chain.

Vera — enmity, hatred — does not cease (na sammati) while fed. The mind that ruminates grievances is like a fire to which wood is added: the more one thinks about the harm received, the more alive the fire remains. No peace is possible while the ego defines itself by its wounds.

The practice of mettā (loving-kindness) is the Buddhist response to this pattern: not as denial of the pain suffered, but as recognition that remaining attached to the grievance only prolongs one’s own suffering. Letting go does not absolve the other; it liberates us.