Friendship
A former friend of mine that I’ll call Mark once said “My idea of friendship is something light and fun; I don’t want to be talking about deep feelings, or how the friendship is going.” Probably a lot of people have this as an unconscious background assumption about friendships. There is nothing wrong with having a pleasant time with friends, but if that is all it is, this is viewing other people essentially as entertainment . When something inconvenient came up in my friendship with Mark, he wasn’t willing to put in the time to work through it and he terminated the friendship. You could say he “changed channels” when the program got unpleasant. But real friendship is not like this. The Buddha placed great importance on friendship. In the Dhammapada he said: “If you find a friend who is good, wise and loving, walk with him all the way and overcome all dangers. If you cannot find a friend who is good, wise, and loving...
