Wise Company gives
best Advantage:
The Blessed Buddha once said:
I am a friend and helper to all. I am sympathetic to all living beings.
I develop a mind full of friendly goodwill.
I always delight in harmlessness!
I gladden my mind, fill it with joy, and make it immovable, and unshakable.
I develop these divine states of mind not cultivated by simple men.
Theragāthā
648-9
I am a friend of the footless,
therefore the footless do not harm me,
I am a friend of the bipeds,
therefore the bipeds
do not harm me,
I am a friend of those with 4 feet,
therefore the 4 feeted do not harm me,
I am a friend of the many-feeted,
therefore the many-feeted do not harm me.
AN
II 72
A friend, who always lends a hand, a friend both in sorrow and joy,
a friend who offers good counsel, a friend who sympathizes too.
These are the four kinds of true friends: One who is wise, who
really have
understood much, will always cherish and serve such friends, just as a
good
mother tends
to her only child.
Digha Nikāya
III, 188
Among tigers, lions, leopards
and bears I lived in the jungle.
No one was frightened of me, nor did I fear anyone.
Uplifted by such universal friendliness, I enjoyed the forest.
Finding great solace in such sweetly silenced solitude...
Suvanna-sama
Jātaka 540
And how does a Bhikkhu abide with his mind imbued with friendliness
extending overall? Just as he would feel
friendliness on seeing a dear and
favourite person, exactly so does he extend this same loving-kindness to
all beings in all the 8 directions, one by one, and as above, so
also below.
Abhidhamma
Pitaka: Appamañña-vibhanga
Bhikkhus, whatever kinds of worldly merit there are, all
these are not worth
one sixteenth part of the release of mind by universal friendliness; in shining,
glowing and beaming radiance, in invisible
yet shielding protection, such release
of mind by infinite and universal friendliness far excels,
and surpasses them
all...
Itivuttaka
27
Video on Mettā Meditation on Friendliness:
How to cure Depression?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz0nE1wRWQY
Metta Meditation As streaming audio and mp3 download:
https://soundcloud.com/bhikkhu-samahita/metta-meditation
Universal
Friendliness (Mettā) is 1 of 4 Infinite States (Appamañña Brahma-Vihāra):
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Selfless_Friendship_is_Sweetest.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/All_Embracing_Kindness.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Blazing_Friendliness.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_Good_Friend.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Goodwill_Encore.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Friendliness_Frees.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Kalyanamitta.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Metta.htm
