{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn45.2/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn45.2","id":"suttacentral_sn45.2","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn45.2/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans, where they have a town named Townsville. Then Venerable \u0100nanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: \u201cSir, good friends, companions, and associates are half the spiritual life.\u201d \u201cNot 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, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens as letting go. They develop right purpose \u2026 right speech \u2026 right action \u2026 right livelihood \u2026 right effort \u2026 right mindfulness \u2026 right immersion, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens 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.\u201d","title":"Half the Spiritual Life","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":238}