I was reading the bulk of the initial posts on this topic yesterday, after replying to Vineeto.
I can relate to what Kiman was saying, but today I realized that there’s a nuance to the word ‘harmlessness’ (I recently briefly felt angry at my father, and got to look at it all in action).
First, yes, I’d also say that almost all malice stems from sorrow, as Kiman wrote. Shashank points to the ‘taking offense’ phenomenon as a good example. But even so, when that malice[1] is being experienced, at its core is the instinctual passion of aggression itself (expressed in one of the ways[1:1] at surface). The instinctual passion of aggression is ‘activated’ from the get go, which is important to bear in mind.
So, I did not like what I was feeling (with my father) – it was making me miserable, but moreover (and this is what I realized today) I also felt motivated not to hurt other people. Putting my father in a miserable mood (via my angry expressions / vibes) is not only unnecessary, but also that I’d of course rather that he (anyone in fact) be in a good mood. The best I can do here (in regards to being benevolent) is to not experience malice (aggression) in the first place. Obviously, I cannot ‘change’ him; but I can certainly not be malicious, which would be beneficial for him (and everyone) indirectly. I find this harmlessness (not be malicious) to be a greatly motivating factor on top of the existing[2] motivating factor of happiness (not be miserable)
So, yes, in that sense ‘harmlessness’ can be seen as being a little more than a mere ‘absence of malice’. It is this (active!) ‘motivation’ or ‘intent’ (beneficial one at that) to not cause harm, both for others and oneself. And it is the latter – ‘for oneself’ – where all of this dovetails back to the motivation to be happy. Hence, ‘inseparable’. Ain’t life grand! (hehehe)
Richard: As a broad generalised categorisation, ‘malice’ (the desire to hurt another person; active ill will, spite or hatred; a deep resentment) is used here as a ‘catch-all’ word for what one does to others (resentment, anger, hatred, rage, sadism and so on through all the variations such as abhorrence; acerbity; acrimony; aggression; anger; animosity; antagonism; antipathy; aversion; bad blood; temper; bellicosity; belligerence; bile; bitchiness; bitterness; cantankerousness; cattiness; crabbiness; crossness; defamation; despisal; detestation; disgust; dislike; dissatisfaction; enmity; envy; evil; execration; grievance; grudge; grudgingness; hard feelings; harm; hate; hatred; hostility; ill feeling; ill will; ill-nature; ill-temper; inimicalness; irascibility; irritability; loathing; malevolence; malignance; malignity; militancy; moodiness; murder; opposition; peevishness; petulance; pique; querulousness; rancour; repulsion; repugnance; resentment; snideness; spite; spitefulness; spleen; spoiling; stifling; sullenness; testiness; touchiness; umbrage; unfriendliness; unkindness; vengefulness; venom; vindictiveness; warlikeness; wrath). Topics Malice ↩︎ ↩︎
See the two ‘Bonus’ quotes here as well as the “danger to other people” one here, which are reinterated here. ↩︎