How To Treat Enemies

A student asked,

How should I behave toward my enemies, or in other words, people that our out ONLY to harm me?

The Teacher replied:

I can't improve on the advice Jesus gave, which is to love your enemies, which really means to have no enemies. If unconditional love is the center of your being, that is something no one can harm or touch.

I believe that our purpose in life is to be happy and to teach others by example how to be happy. When someone tries to harm you and discovers that your happiness is unassailable, he may cease hating you and try to emulate you. People who set out to harm others are very unhappy people themselves. They live in a state of unconsciousness toward Spirit. The unhappiness that dominates their minds seeks to perpetuate itself by spreading unhappiness to others. It is a universal law that what a person sends into the world will come back to him or her. The unhappy mind knows this and seeks to bolster its own unhappiness by making those around it unhappy also.

If a person seems to be actively seeking to spread unhappiness, it is possible that the Spirit within that person is trying to break through the shell of unconsciousness in which it is confined. This drives the unhappy mind to greater efforts to contain Spirit, because it fears that Spirit will destroy it. Yet it is not necessary to destroy it, because it does not exist; it is mere darkness that will ultimately be dispelled by the emrgence of Light. This process may take more than one lifetime. However, you can help by shining the Light of your own unconditional love upon that person. Even if the effect on him or her is not perceptible, you may cause the shell that binds that person's Spirit to begin to dissolve; and in the meantime, you will have done no harm to yourself.