Nature of friendship

 

Examine the cause of your friendships. Here are the reasons you make friends:

• You have common enemies. Fear or a threat to survival brings people together. 
• You have common problems such as an illness or job dissatisfaction. 
• You have common job or professional interests. 
• You have common tastes and interests, such as sports, movies, music and hobbies. 
• You have compassion or provide service. 
• You become friends merely because of long-term acquaintance with one another. 

Brave are those who nurture friendships for only friendship’s sake. Such friendships will never die nor become sour for they are born out of your friendly nature, and only through wisdom can you be friendly by nature.

Only a fool is bothered by foolishness

 

What really perturbs you? Is it the foolishness that goes on around you? It is foolish to be perturbed by foolishness. Foolishness cannot overpower or annihilate wisdom nor does foolishness last very long. 

When you are not well grounded in wisdom, then foolishness perturbs you, throws you off balance. When you create space for foolishness, you will not get perturbed by it, rather you will laugh and move on. Otherwise, you get hateful or angry, or become stressed by foolish acts. 

When you know that truth is eternal and invincible, you accept foolishness as a joke and remain unmoved by it. Those who are averse to foolishness or get irritated by it are also members of the fools’ club.