When we think of compassion there are a lot of different faces of compassion. Some of the faces of compassion are the police, the courts, lawyers, judges, etc., this is part of our compassion. So if we have aversion towards an action that is actually very harmful, then indeed we can call the police to come and help stop this action from being done. So when we are having aversion because somebody is doing an illegal activity, then we can ask for help, because the whole society works very well if the legal system works well. And after all the legal system is there because of the compassionate intention to help make society work well.
Now, let's look at this in a different way and consider your work and your boss. Maybe you have aversion towards your boss and you have aversion towards what he does, but it is not illegal. So you can't call the police for that. On occasion though, you can go over the bosses' head. I once had to do this in my own life when I was not getting proper results trying to communicate with my immediate boss. I went over him and contacted the people who were his bosses. By contacting them and telling them about my problems and difficulties, they then took care of my boss which then fixed my problem. So there are times when we can go around that person, even though we still have to deal with them, have to work with them.
Now, sometimes there are work situations where we are having a hard time and we just can't get any help, because there is no boss above our boss. Often then we have to quit the job, we have to go somewhere else, we have to move. Another example: one of our students for quite a few years kept coming to us and complaining about the dogs next door. The dogs next door were always barking, barking, barking, and this student could not get satisfaction dealing with the owner, the owner didn't care. This student could not really report it to the police, they were kind of limited to what the police could do in that situation. So this person kept complaining about the person next door and their dogs over and over and over. We explained how to have compassion, how to note "hearing" and this and that, but it wasn't enough. Eventually we simply said they may have to consider moving, if they can't solve this problem any other way. We said this to them two retreats in a row and then we never saw them again, so we have no idea if they moved or not, but these are a questions that you have to ask yourself. For whomever wrote this question, whether you are having have aversion towards a person, or having aversion towards the action, if it is a very strong aversion, you may just have to take yourself out of that situation totally.
Often what we have to do when working with aversion is just change our thoughts, because we are basically not thinking properly. If we change our thoughts from aversion into compassion, then we can often keep dealing with that type of person. I myself do not have the best relationship with some of my relatives, I need to have wise aversion and to try to stay away from them, because their lifestyles, their attitudes and their personalities are not helpful for me to be around. Yet on occasion because it is family I do have to see these people from time to time. Yet in my mind, I can still keep a distance from them and not get affected by their negative personality traits and so on.
This is part of Equanimity, the Compassion/Equanimity balance. I don't have to be upset, I don't have to hate, hate, hate. I can have compassion for them yet at the same time I'm trying to stay away from them. On Day 9 morning in the regular retreat when I mention that some people may still be having problems with having Compassion/Lovingkindness towards bad people, I talk about separating the person from the action. We can have wise aversion to actions that are harmful, but yet we can have compassion towards the person doing the action. Now when we have Compassion towards the so called bad people, it doesn't mean we like them, it doesn't mean we are going to invite them into our house, it just means we are opening our heart to the pain that this person has. Basically they are a bit sick inside. We may still call the police to come and take them away, but we don't have to have aversion towards them on a personal level. That is where we can change, opening our compassion more, letting go of aversion.