พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าคู่กรณีเกิดจากตัวเก็บเหตุฝ่ายอกุศลที่รอจังหวะให้ผลตามผังกรรมเดิม การขอขมาและให้อโหสิกรรมช่วยให้กุศลเป็นพยานยับยั้งอกุศลไม่ให้กระทำซ้ำ แต่ผลกรรมที่ยังไม่หมดพลังงานก็อาจเกิดขึ้นได้อีก ต้องยอมรับและเผชิญหน้าThe teacher explains that adversaries arise from an unwholesome imprint waiting for its moment to ripen according to a pre-existing kammic pattern. Asking forgiveness and being forgiven lets wholesomeness stand as witness and restrain that imprint from acting again — but if its energy isn't yet spent, it may still recur, and one must accept and face it.
Someone asked the teacher: when a person who once treated us well becomes biased against us or turns into an adversary, what kammic connection lies behind it? How should we hold our minds and act so as not to suffer harm from it, and so as not to create causes that make us someone else's adversary in the future? Is it necessary to ask forgiveness, and if so, how should it be done correctly and effectively?
How Adversaries Come to Be
The teacher explained that life operates under two laws: and . The law of kamma brings results from the past into the present. When we once harmed someone out of greed or anger, element within that person stores the memory as resentment, waiting for the moment its pattern will ripen. When paths cross again later, things may look fine at first — but once the pattern reaches its point of ripeness, that stored imprint seizes on some small matter and blows it into something large, stirring up displeasure. All of this follows a pattern already set in motion; it cannot be avoided, because the law of kamma concerns something already completed in the past — which is precisely what makes it possible to foretell who will suffer, when, and how.
How to Ease It, and Whether Asking Forgiveness Is Necessary
He explained that although the law of kamma cannot be avoided, its weight can be lightened by dwelling within a wholesome system — wholesomeness can help. As for whether asking forgiveness is necessary, the teacher confirmed that it is: when we ask forgiveness, ness within the other person stands as witness and helps restrain their unwholesome side from acting again. But this only works if the other person genuinely offers forgiveness. If deep resentment still remains, some form of proportionate restitution may be needed, according to what that stored imprint demands. If it was only minor irritation rather than deep resentment, forgiveness comes more easily. Once forgiveness is given, the wholesomeness within the one who forgives stands guard, preventing their unwholesome side from stirring up trouble again.
A Case in Point: After Forgiveness, Could It Happen Again
Someone shared a case from more than ten years earlier, in which a child had physically struck a parent. The child later came to ask forgiveness, and the parent granted it — but there was still concern about whether it could happen again. The teacher explained that the parent's forgiveness restrains the parent's own stored imprint from acting against the child again, but that is separate from whether the child might strike the parent again. That depends on whether the unwholesome energy the child had stored from the past was fully spent in that earlier incident, or whether some remains. If it was released and used up then, it may not recur; if some remains, it could happen again. He advised not living in fear, but accepting and facing whatever karmic result one has created — once that result is received, it is spent. He also noted that violence to the degree of a child striking a parent is not a normal feature of that relationship, and is more likely the ripening of an imprint stored from before this life's relationship began.