{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn3.18/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn3.18","id":"suttacentral_sn3.18","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn3.18/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At S\u0101vatth\u012b. Seated to one side, King Pasenadi said to the Buddha, \u201cJust now, sir, as I was in private retreat this thought came to mind. \u2018The teaching is well explained by the Buddha. But it\u2019s for someone with good friends, companions, and associates, not for someone with bad friends, companions, and associates.\u2019\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s so true, Great King! That\u2019s so true!\u201d said the Buddha. And he repeated the king\u2019s statement, adding: \u201cGreat king, this one time I was staying in the land of the Sakyans where they have a town named Townsville. Then the mendicant \u0100nanda came to me, bowed, sat down to one side, and said: \u2018Sir, good friends, companions, and associates are half the spiritual life.\u2019 When he had spoken, I said to him: \u2018Not so, \u0100nanda! Not so, \u0100nanda! Good friends, companions, and associates are the whole of the spiritual life. A mendicant with good friends, companions, and associates can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant with good friends develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It\u2019s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That\u2019s how a mendicant with good friends develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path. And here\u2019s another way to understand how good friends are the whole of the spiritual life. For, by relying on me as a good friend, sentient beings who are liable to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress are freed from all these things. This is another way to understand how good friends are the whole of the spiritual life.\u2019 So, Great King, you should train like this: \u2018I will have good friends, companions, and associates.\u2019 That\u2019s how you should train. When you have good friends, companions, and associates, you should live supported by one thing: diligence in skillful qualities. When you\u2019re diligent, supported by diligence, your ladies of the harem, aristocrat vassals, troops, and people of town and country will think: \u2018The king lives diligently, supported by diligence. We\u2019d better live diligently, supported by diligence!\u2019 When you\u2019re diligent, supported by diligence, then not only you yourself, but your ladies of the harem, and your treasury and storehouses will be guarded and protected.\u201d That is what the Buddha said. \u2026 \u201cFor one who desires high wealth again and again, the astute praise diligence in making merit. Being diligent, an astute person secures both benefits: the benefit in this life, and in lives to come. Attentive, comprehending the meaning, they are said to be astute.\u201d","title":"Good Friends","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":445}