Meditation on Friendship

Friendship transcends personal cliques. Indeed, a good friend is more likely to support unrelated friends of good standing than that unrelated person's group of fair-weather friends, some of whom might assure him of their undivided loyalty and devotion, only to lose their support when their devotion and loyalty is called into question by circumstances.

If we had no friends, then even our mothers would abandon us. For the friendless are the odd Johns of society, and few people tolerate them.

Yet I can tolerate all people, because I believe strong that to deny an offer of friendship based on who you (don't) know, one would have to have only the potential to understand the concept, not the ability to "be a friend to all and enemy to none".

In order to be a good friend, one ought to keep the ancient adage at heart: "Keep your best friend at arm's length, and your greatest enemy nearby."

Our Common Enemy (for the Buddhist Activist)

Our common enemy is not governments, transnational corporations, or even quasi-world governmental bodies such as the World Trade Organization. No, the root cause of the delusion that they are our enemies is the one true enemy.

Yet this enemy is not an external foe, but an inner one. For our enemy is found deep within each of us.

When we blindly crave power, be it derived from fame or fortune, that craving becomes our true enemy. When we become selfish, unwilling to share the joys of life, that selfishness becomes our true enemy. When we fear overcoming our ignorance, that fear becomes our true enemy. When we become angry for any reason, that anger becomes our true enemy. When we let our passions rule our lives, our passions become our true enemy.

Once our true enemy is unleashed, we become deluded about who our enemy is, blaming others when it is unwarranted and looking for an external foe to shift responsibility from ourselves.

In doing so, we become utterly powerless, the self-made victim, self-martyred.

Thus, it becomes so easy to find an enemy in someone else than to own up to the root cause of our own suffering.

In suffering this delusion of self-as-enemy, our natural reaction then is to play the eternal, all-suffering victim and to find an external enemy to fit the dominator role.

Difficult is it to control our passions and to rule over them, and become our only true friend. One can have an advisor to give advice and a mentor to guide us, but few of us can find one to control our passions and to rule over them except each of us alone. Yet, try as we may, alone it may be difficult to discipline oneself so that we do not victimize ourselves.

"How can I be my own enemy?" asks the incredulous fool. "I am but a friend to myself. It is others who seek to destroy me who are my enemies."

Sadly mistaken, the fool is he who believes others seek to destroy him.

"I am my best friend!" declares the enlightened one. "Everyone is also friend to me. Because I do not destroy my self, no enemy do I seek to destroy, for all are my friends."

Happily, the person thus awakened believes others seek to nurture him. In this way, the lie of others as one's enemy is exposed.

So, why is it so convenient to see others as the enemy?

It is due to anger, fear, ignorance, and selfishness — namely, our very passions unchecked lead to the delusion of others as enemies.

How do we control our passions so that we may become our true friends, and see others as friends also?

It is through contemplative meditation that we control our passions, and thus learn to become our own friends, overcoming the delusion of others as enemies.

Thus empowered by overcoming our delusions, we can go on to confront governments, transnational corporations and even world government organizations, and help them overcome their own delusions, accordingly.

However, if we choose instead to live our delusions, then we will suffer the consequences.

Therefore it makes much more sense to overcome our delusions, so that we can help out our deluded friends in government and in corporations realize the truth.