"He abused me, he struck me, he overpowered me, he robbed me." Those who harbour such thoughts do not still their hatred.

Hatred, the verse says, is not stilled by the original wound but by the rehearsal of it. The four verbs — abused, struck, overpowered, robbed — are the structure of the human grievance, repeated to oneself until it sets. The teaching does not deny that the wound happened. It draws a line between the wound and its memorization. Most of what we carry is not the harm; it is the catalog of the harm. The Buddha is asking: which of the two are you actually maintaining?