Teaching #13: Consider both friends and enemies with equanimity – both are conduits of your own bad and good karma
No one is truly a friend and no one is truly an enemy. If someone is truly the friend of another, then he should always remain a friend. But this is not what we see. A person whom one considers a friend can become an enemy. No one is either friend or enemy by any inherent nature. Friends are the manifestation of our good karma, and when the fruit of our bad karma appears through the agency of a person, it manifests as an enemy. Happiness and sorrow both are the result of our karma. No one can give happiness or sorrow to anyone. Enemies and friends are merely the means through which the results of our good and bad karma manifest.
When the result of good karma arises, then all people appear as friends and they give us happiness. When the result of bad action arises, all people appear as enemies and give us sorrow. Happiness and sorrow are both our own property; you generate either one according to your own wish.
If I were to kill someone, I would be hung. The order to hang would be given by the judge and carried out by the hangman, but they would not be punished for killing me, because the punishment we receive is the result of our own actions. Therefore the judge and hangman are not responsible for my death, and I cannot rightly regard them as my enemies. Just as action is impersonal, so also is the consequence of action. The result automatically affects the conscious mind, which is the actor. Within the conscious mind, the mechanical result brings happiness and sorrow. From whomever we get happiness, remember that they are just the conduit of good karma, just as whosoever brings suffering are the conduits for us to experience bad karma.
Happiness and sorrow are always our own property. The person who becomes the means to deliver the consequences of our actions may mistakenly be seen as the cause for our happiness and sorrow. After fully comprehending this fact, we should free ourselves from attachment and aversion. When our own property is merely being returned to us, why should we blame another? If someone becomes the conduit of good karma, then let them appear. We should neither love nor hate anyone. Why love or hate a messenger? The main property of happiness or sorrow is ours; so why should we care about the carrier?
In sum, refraining from attachment or hatred toward anyone, we should experience peacefully the consequences of our previous actions, whether that comes in the form of happiness or in the form of sorrow, because both are our own property. Whether they are good or bad consequences for us, when they arise, we should welcome them happily.
