Good morning!
We live in the world of interdependent co-origination. Our life is dependent on the
environment which is then dependent upon with whom we live. Our life is good if
we have good friends, and bad if we have bad friends.
Kenko Yoshida (1283~1358), a Buddhist monk and an essayist, said that good friends
are those who give us things and medicine men. We need material things and healthy
bodies, but how about spiritual matters?
When Ananda said friends make half of our life in the holy way, the Buddha said
they make all of it. The Buddha said that people can be freed from aging, sickness,
and death by making him a good friend (kalyāna mitra).
Mitra (friend) came from mit (with). Mitra, Mithra, Maitreya, Milu, Mazda, etc.
are the future saviors or the our potential to become true good friends (kalyāna
mitra/mitta) in truth (Dharma, Dao, etc.) and peace (nirvana, etc.)
The Buddha has been the good friend with unconditioned peace (nirvana) and
unsurpassed awakening. He lived as a bodhisattva forty five years after his attaining
nirvana (unconditioned peace) and bodhi (awakening).
In the Soto tradition, we receive the sixteen precepts at our ordination: the triple
pure precepts, the triple treasures, and the ten grave precepts as bodhisattvas.
We have good friends and good lives with them.
8/25/13
Taking refuge in the Triple Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha;
Embracing the Triple Collective Pure Precepts of all good behaviors,
all good dharmas, all beings;
Receiving the Ten Prohibitory Precepts: no killing, no stealing, no
sexual misconduct, no falsehood, no intoxicants, no speaking of
faults, no praising oneself and slandering others, no begrudging
of the dharma, no anger, no defaming of the Triple Treasures.
Kenko Yoshida