The Way For Students - 152 Chapter 4. School And Study Section 3. Friend Relationship
5. Points to Note in Friendship
How about you? Do you all have such a friend? You should make a comparative study about people. When you meet any person, you can tell what he is like in the type of your friends, and which type he belongs to among 100 persons you know. Choose several types among them and try them out whether he is a gentle person or a conceited person, or a impatient person, or an irresolute person. (54-177)
For example, when you say, "He is a good friend," the good friend whom I call a good friend can be said to be a good friend only if he would be able to tell you so. But under such a circumstance that "well, he is a tough egg," he cannot be a good friend of you.
Therefore, to find out a good friend you must pass the critical point. You should improve your lot. What do you have to do to improve your lot? You should break into sweat. You should not spare yourself. You should pay the price in proper portion to improve your lot. So you need your sweat and tears. (33-317)
When you commonly say "a bad man," what do you mean by that? We call the man who gives the first consideration to only himself and worry about his own interest a bad man. When such man goes into the society he would be branded as a bad man, so also in his family and among his friends.
We humans are not destined to think of ourselves only. Most valuable things are not coming out from a self-centered attitude. Even though you have one thousand friends, you cannot make a boast of it. No matter how many friends you have you might soon be left alone unless you can restrain the impulse to assert yourself only.
It would however be of no use to perform a sacrificial rite to let them stay with you. All of them would leave if they encountered this insult, "you guy, do this" three more times. You should know that to assert yourself only is the first step to lead to self destruction. (36-181)
When you are going to make friends, it becomes an issue to know whether they would be promising friends or hopeless friends. If you have a relationship with hopeless friends, the more you would have valueless results with you. Therefore, you must build relations with better friends in order to prepare for your future. (32-14)
When you are confronted with any problem or an accident in leading your religious life, you must always check whether it says welcome to you or strikes terror into your heart on the basis of the standard of your mind.
When someone comes to you and talks about some problem, awaiting solution, through your religious life you always have to analyze and judge it to see whether your original mind harmonizes with it at the first place where you hear it. (40-68)
Through our lifetime, or from the cradle to the grave, a single word might hold sway over your destiny. Were it not for the single word, you would not be confronted with such a disaster. But in many cases because of a single word people are ruined for their lives.
The same may be said of hearing. Being once misinformed, many might be ruined for life. The same may be said for behavior. Because of attending a meeting once, you might make a failure of your life. And in making friends with someone, keeping a bad company might make a failure of your life. There are no end of such cases.
Therefore, men of good sense from ancient times teach you to be careful in your speaking, hearing, behaving, and making friends. You should know it is the same teaching applied across the ages and countries of the world.
For a man it is not easy to be considerate of others when he is placed at a disadvantageous position. You are all the same. Don't you agree with me? [Yes]. In such conditions to avoid his own suffering he might make a cat's paw of his friends, or take advantage of the situation, or he might talk and behave in a different way. Such conditions are waiting for you.
Considered in this light, who on earth can you believe in? And who else would you depend on? It is absolutely not easy to follow the right way under such circumstances as I mentioned above. Even though you believe in him as your good friend, you might easily be treaded on and taken advantage of by him as circumstances might require.
You are forced to walk through the world like that. Therefore, considering, who you would make good friendships with, or who you have good relationships with is the most difficult question. (91-29)
If you have a friend whom you don't want to meet again, he is only a rash friend of yours. His future looks gray. If you have a friend who, even along in a way of ordeal and difficulty, always gives you something stimulating, something impulsive, or something to make you awake, you should be always willing to follow him even through the thorny path. (42-194) |