                       ASSOCIATION WITH THE WISE

                                   by
                             Bhikkhu Bodhi


           BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #26 (1st Mailing 1994)

              Copyright 1994 Buddhist Publication Society

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                         DharmaNet Edition 1994

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  The Mahamangala Sutta, the Great Discourse on Blessings, is one of the 
  most popular Buddhist suttas, included in all the standard repertories 
  of Pali devotional chants. The sutta begins when a deity of stunning 
  beauty, having descended to earth in the stillness of the night, 
  approaches the Blessed One in the Jeta Grove and asks about the way to 
  the highest blessings. In the very first stanza of his reply the 
  Buddha states that the highest blessing comes from avoiding fools and 
  associating with the wise (//asevana ca balanam, panditanan ca 
  sevana//). Since the rest of the sutta goes on to sketch all the 
  different aspects of human felicity, both mundane and spiritual, the 
  assignment of association with the wise to the opening stanza serves 
  to emphasize a key point: that progress along the path of the Dhamma 
  hinges on making the right choices in our friendships.
  
  Contrary to certain psychological theories, the human mind is not a 
  hermetically sealed chamber enclosing a personality unalterably shaped 
  by biology and infantile experience. Rather, throughout life it 
  remains a highly malleable entity continually remolding itself in 
  response to its social interactions. Far from coming to our personal 
  relationships with a fixed and immutable character, our regular and 
  repeated social contacts implicate us in a constant process of 
  psychological osmosis that offers precious opportunities for growth 
  and transformation. Like living cells engaged in a chemical dialogue 
  with their colleagues, our minds transmit and receive a steady barrage 
  of messages and suggestions that may work profound changes even at 
  levels below the threshold of awareness.
  
  Particularly critical to our spiritual progress is our selection of 
  friends and companions, who can have the most decisive impact upon our 
  personal destiny. It is because he perceived how susceptible our minds 
  can be to the influence of our companions that the Buddha repeatedly 
  stressed the value of good friendship (//kalyanamittata//) in the 
  spiritual life. The Buddha states that he sees no other thing that is 
  so much responsible for the arising of unwholesome qualities in a 
  person as bad friendship, nothing so helpful for the arising of 
  wholesome qualities as good friendship (AN I.vii,10; I.viii,1). Again, 
  he says that he sees no other external factor that leads to so much 
  harm as bad friendship, and no other external factor that leads to so 
  much benefit as good friendship (AN I.x,13,14). It is through the 
  influence of a good friend that a disciple is led along the Noble 
  Eightfold Path to release from all suffering (SN 45:2).
  
  Good friendship, in Buddhism, means considerably more than associating 
  with people that one finds amenable and who share one's interests. It 
  means in effect seeking out wise companions to whom one can look for 
  guidance and instruction. The task of the noble friend is not only to 
  provide companionship in the treading of the way. The truly wise and 
  compassionate friend is one who, with understanding and sympathy of 
  heart, is ready to criticize and admonish, to point out one's faults, 
  to exhort and encourage, perceiving that the final end of such 
  friendship is growth in the Dhamma. The Buddha succinctly expresses 
  the proper response of a disciple to such a good friend in a verse of 
  the Dhammapada: "If one finds a person who points out one's faults and 
  who reproves one, one should follow such a wise and sagacious 
  counselor as one would a guide to hidden treasure" (Dhp. 76).
  
  Association with the wise becomes so crucial to spiritual development 
  because the example and advice of a noble-minded counselor is often 
  the decisive factor that awakens and nurtures the unfolding of our own 
  untapped spiritual potential. The uncultivated mind harbors a vast 
  diversity of unrealized possibilities, ranging from the depths of 
  selfishness, egotism and aggressivity to the heights of wisdom, 
  self-sacrifice and compassion. The task confronting us, as followers 
  of the Dhamma, is to keep the unwholesome tendencies in check and to 
  foster the growth of the wholesome tendencies, the qualities that lead 
  to awakening, to freedom and purification. However, our internal 
  tendencies do not mature and decline in a vacuum. They are subject to 
  the constant impact of the broader environment, and among the most 
  powerful of these influences is the company we keep, the people we 
  look upon as teachers, advisors and friends. Such people silently 
  speak to the hidden potentials of our own being, potentials that will 
  either unfold or wither under their influence.
  
  In our pursuit of the Dhamma it therefore becomes essential for us to 
  choose as our guides and companions those who represent, at least in 
  part, the noble qualities we seek to internalize by the practice of 
  the Dhamma. This is especially necessary in the early stages of our 
  spiritual development, when our virtuous aspirations are still fresh 
  and tender, vulnerable to being undermined by inward irresolution or 
  by discouragement from acquaintances who do not share our ideals. In 
  this early phase our mind resembles a chameleon, which alters its 
  color according to its background. Just as this remarkable lizard 
  turns green when in the grass and brown when on the ground, so we 
  become fools when we associate with fools and sages when we associate 
  with sages. Internal changes do not generally occur suddenly; but 
  slowly, by increments so slight that we ourselves may not be aware of 
  them, our characters undergo a metamorphosis that in the end may prove 
  to be dramatically significant.
  
  If we associate closely with those who are addicted to the pursuit of 
  sense pleasures, power, riches and fame, we should not imagine that we 
  will remain immune from those addictions: in time our own minds will 
  gradually incline to these same ends. If we associate closely with 
  those who, while not given up to moral recklessness, live their lives 
  comfortably adjusted to mundane routines, we too will remain stuck in 
  the ruts of the commonplace. If we aspire for the highest -- for the 
  peaks of transcendent wisdom and liberation -- then we must enter into 
  association with those who represent the highest. Even if we are not 
  so fortunate as to find companions who have already scaled the 
  heights, we can well count ourselves blessed if we cross paths with a 
  few spiritual friends who share our ideals and who make earnest 
  efforts to nurture the noble qualities of the Dhamma in their hearts.
  
  When we raise the question how to recognize good friends, how to 
  distinguish good advisors from bad advisors, the Buddha offers us
  crystal-clear advice. In the Shorter Discourse on a Full-Moon Night 
  (MN 110) he explains the difference between the companionship of the 
  bad person and the companionship of the good person. The bad person 
  chooses as friends and companions those who are without faith, whose 
  conduct is marked by an absence of shame and moral dread, who have no 
  knowledge of spiritual teachings, who are lazy and unmindful, and who 
  are devoid of wisdom. As a consequence of choosing such bad friends as 
  his advisors, the bad person plans and acts for his own harm, for the 
  harm of others, and the harm of both, and he meets with sorrow and 
  misery.
  
  In contrast, the Buddha continues, the good person chooses as friends 
  and companions those who have faith, who exhibit a sense of shame and 
  moral dread, who are learned in the Dhamma, energetic in cultivation 
  of the mind, mindful, and possessed of wisdom. Resorting to such good 
  friends, looking to them as mentors and guides, the good person 
  pursues these same qualities as his own ideals and absorbs them into 
  his character. Thus, while drawing ever closer to deliverance himself, 
  he becomes in turn a beacon light for others. Such a one is able to 
  offer those who still wander in the dark an inspiring model to 
  emulate, and a wise friend to turn to for guidance and advice.
  
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 TITLE OF WORK: Association with the Wise (BPS Newsletter Cover
                Essay, No. 26, 1st Mailing 1994)
 FILENAME: ESSAY_26.ZIP
 AUTHOR: Bhikkhu Bodhi
 AUTHOR'S ADDRESS:  Buddhist Publication Society
                    P.O. Box 61
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 COPYRIGHT HOLDER: Buddhist Publication Society (1994)
 DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1994
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 DATE OF DHARMANET DISTRIBUTION: December 1994
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