Someone asked about the difference between a 'karmic counterparty' (khu-kam-khu-wen) and a 'karmic creditor' (chao-kam-nai-wen), and why loving-kindness can only be extended to the former.

Karmic Results Follow a Pre-Formed Pattern

When someone has, in the past, done something that caused another's death, the subtler body of the one harmed retains that cause and holds a grudge. When the opportunity arises, that stored resentment draws the two parties into a matching set of circumstances, following a pattern already laid down by the unwholesome side. Whichever sphere of merit is smaller than the sphere of demerit gets enveloped by it, prevented from acting, while the demerit releases a current that shapes the surrounding conditions to bring the event to completion. Everything follows a pattern that already exists — like a program drawing two parties together.

The Karmic Counterparty: The Direct Party Involved

The karmic counterparty (khu-kam-khu-wen) is whoever is directly involved as the other party in the event itself — a relationship between two people brought face to face by karma they created together in the past.

The Karmic Creditor: The One Who Holds the Grudge Within

The karmic creditor (chao-kam-nai-wen), by contrast, is the one who retains the cause — the internal keeper of the unwholesome debt, holding onto resentment inside the person who was wronged, waiting for the chance to reclaim what is owed. Because this inner keeper belongs to the unwholesome side, it has no interest in merit or loving-kindness directed toward it — it simply will not accept them.

Why Loving-Kindness Only Reaches the Karmic Counterparty

Radiating loving-kindness toward the karmic creditor therefore has no effect, since it refuses to receive it. But radiating loving-kindness toward the karmic counterparty does have a direct effect, because doing so strengthens the power of one's own wholesome merit, which can help mitigate a harmful outcome to some degree — though it cannot fully override the law of karma.