There is no difference between our enemies and our teachers.
“The deluded mind, being itself illusory, is unstable and fluctuates, like experiences in a dream whereas the true and undeluded nature of phenomena, the Buddha-nature or Tathagatagarbha, has been present from unoriginated time.
It is exactly the same in ourselves as it is in the Buddhas. It is thanks to it that the Buddhas are able to bring help to beings; it is thanks to it, too, that beings may attain enlightenment.
There is no other introduction to the four kayas than this understanding of the true nature of illusory perception. We should be thankful, therefore, to our enemies for stimulating our experience of relative and absolute Bodhichitta.
It was the same, for example, with Milarepa. When his aunt and uncle turned against him and his mother, reducing them to beggary, he was eventually spurred into going to seek the help of Marpa. He then practiced with such diligence that within his very lifetime he attained unsurpassable accomplishment so that his fame filled both the noble land of India and Tibet, the Land of Snow.
All this came to pass because of the actions of criminals. Therefore we should be grateful for the stimulus that they provide. For indeed, as long as we are unable to make use of the antidote, as described above, and negative emotions are at work in us without our noticing, it is through the activity of those who do us harm that we are made aware of them. Consequently it is as if they were emanations of our Teacher and the Buddhas.
Suppose we are afflicted by a deadly disease, or even if we are only unwell, we should think, ‘If I were not sick, I should be lost in the futility of trying to make this life pleasant, giving no thought to Dharma. But because I am suffering, I think of death, turn to the teachings and reflect upon them. All this is the activity of my Teacher and the Three Jewels’.
We all know that Bodhichitta begins to develop in us when we have met with a Teacher and received his or her teachings.
If, with the seed of Bodhichitta once planted in our hearts, we continue to practice, evil-doers and the troubles they cause, indeed suffering in general, will all conspire to make our Bodhichitta grow.
There is therefore no difference between our enemies and our Teachers. Knowing that suffering brings about the growth of the two Bodhichittas, we must take advantage of it.”
from Enlightened Courage – Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche