1 of 7

Write now Article Tools

'Spiritual friendship is the whole of the Spiritual life'.
(Buddha).

Buddhist concept of friendship, can perhaps be seen most clearly in 'Metta' and 'Karuna'. 'Metta' or 'loving kindness' are of the highest value to all Buddists. They try to extend their 'loving-kindness' to all living beings, with no exceptions. 'Karuna' or 'Compassion' is a virtue which Buddhists continually try to cultivate. Friendship is thought to have the expectations and personal responsibilities of both 'Karuna' and 'Metta', as is taught in the 'Sacred Dhamma'.

'The Forteen Teachings of Buddha' are a good guide to the Buddhist idea of friendship. I have written them below and will include my own interpretations with the perspective of 'Karuna' and 'Metta'

1. 'The greatest enemy in life is the self.' The person most difficult to love is one self. Before we can love others, we need to be able to see ourselves as good people and love ourselves. In doing good actions and gaining good results in good Karma, we are not only showing 'loving kindness' and 'compassion' to others, we are also showing it to ourselves. We feel better about ourselves and in doing so are more attractive to others.

2. 'The greatest ignorance in life is deceit'. If we deceive others we will eventually lose those friendships and hurt ourselves. Buddhists believe that if someone deceives us, we should be loving to this person and compassionate for their ignorance. On the other hand, we should not let friends drain us of our spirit and energy.

3. 'The greatest failure in life is vanity'. We should try and think of others and what we can do for them, rather than our selves. If we are all consumed with ourselves, our appearance, our lives, then we are not giving enough of our selves to our friends.

4. 'The greatest tragedy in life is jealousy'. Too much time is wasted being jealous of the things others have and we do not. We may be jealous because our friend has a nice car, or money, a good husband and other things that we do not have. We must be happy for our friends and perhaps they will share what they have with us.

5. 'The greatest error in life is to lose oneself'. Sometimes we get lost in other people. We may try to emulate our friends lives, clothes, shoes, actions. This is a terrible mistake, because our friends like us for who we are and do not want us to be the same as them. If we were all the same the world would be a very boring place.

6. 'The greatest crime in life is disloyalty to parents.' We should always have

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about The Buddhist concept of friendship?
We want to hear your view. Write now!