Spiritual Friendship

[DS Star]

One day Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while, turned to the Buddha and exclaimed:
 
"Lord, I've been thinking- spiritual friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!"

The Buddha replied: "Say not so, Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!"

Samyutta Nikaya, Verse 2


Obviously when Buddha talked about Spiritual Friend, He referred mainly to 'Spiritual Guide' as the Buddha mentioned thus:

“In this whole world, I am the supreme spiritual friend of living beings, because it is in dependence upon me, by relying upon me, that those who are subject to birth, old age, and death become liberated from birth, old age, and death.”

This is the spiritual friendship between a Spiritual Guide (teacher) and the student. The most important type of spiritual friendship.

Then there is another spiritual friendship which is important and needed by most of us.

From a lecture by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi :

"... when we unite with others in spiritual friendship based upon common aspirations, this reinforces our own energies. When we walk a common path and engage in common practices, we gain encouragement, strength, and inspiration to continue in our practice. This is like crossing the desert in a caravan: others help us carry the supplies, we can pause for conversation, we have a sense of sharing the trials along the way, and we rejoice together as we approach our destination.

When we unite with others in spiritual friendship, this not only transforms our approach to the practice, but also has an impact upon the very nature of our friendships..."

These are the two type of spiritual friends that will help us on our spiritual path. We must choose them wisely...

[fruven]

Yes definitely. I am very much agreement. Without a spiritual friend we will be lost. The spiritual friends for most of us which have so much influence is actually our own parents before we meet our guru. For some they never meet their guru therefore they would only tread on the path of this worldly life.... As people who have met the Dharma it has become our duties to be a spiritual friend for others. Otherwise who else who can lead them on to a spiritual journey?

[Freyr Aesiragnorak]

Spiritual friends of literal friends in the Dharma are crucial to keep us on the path, point out our mistakes in a loving manner and provide solace in a world that can sometime seem very anti-dharma. Not all people can relate to Buddhists, and i know first hand, having been ostracized from certain groups of friends since becoming Buddhist.

The true spiritual friend however is our Guru, the outer Guru who leads us to the inner Guru - the innate purity of our own minds through facilitating transformation by showing us how are minds actually work. The importance, as stated in the quote from the scripture above, cannot be underestimated, especially for those people who practice or aspire to practice tantra. This is when it becomes even more important.

[angelsherfield]

Yeah. Our Guru is the true spiritual friend that I have the opportunity to know him and learns from his teaching. His teaching has been always inspire me and allow me to apply into my working environment and helps people around.

Besides, I also have one closed friend in Dharma who I am considered her as spiritual friend. I knew her 2 years ago and we are so closed like own sister. We can talk to each other everything with open heart. We help each other and people around us. It is not easy to have such closed spiritual friend who is just around us and support us.

[Kim Hyun Jae]

Spiritual friend to me means the friendship between the Guru with their students, the sangha community and lay practitioners.

What Buddha Shakyamuni said was "Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!". This statement is true as Buddha Shakyamuni had said, that after his passing, he will manifest in many different forms, as whatever being as it need be, to be of benefit to others and show them the way, like spiritual guides, Gurus, reincarnated Lamas, Geshes, beggars, prostitutes, ministers, kings, dharma teachers, holy men and women etc.

When we walk the path of spiritualism, we need support for our body, mind and soul to keep us intact on the path, encourages to walk on, not give up in the midst of obstacles, look ahead, gives us hope, console and comfort us, share with us, forgive and forget. That is the spiritual spirit and friendships are built on these. The path itself was not easy at all but based on friendship, we can all make it at the end. If not in this life, but the next.

[metta girl]

Spiritual Friendship with our Guru and our dharma brothers and sisters.
Spiritual friendship with our teacher is very precious because he is a friend who  is ready to discipline us when necessary by admonishing us, pointing out our faults and attempting to correct our faults and we must be ready to listen and to accept his advice without resentment, without vindictiveness, without arqueing back , without complaints. This spiritual friend is like a mirror, he shows us our faults clearly, insistently , without deception, reminding us of our faults, which we continuouslly strive to hide from ourselves.
The other spiritual friends are our dharma brothers and sisters who are following the same spiritual path who  helped us in uplifting and strengthening in our dharma practice..Sharing dharma knowledge, participating in dharma work and rejoice together as we approach our destination.

[RedLantern]

A good ,deep friendship takes time to develop so the virtue of patience is a good thing to work on while looking for that spiritual friend.Spiritual friends are so important,some people can resonate with us better than others.Nobody is lacking.Spiritual friends go up and beyond.When you faith,it is much deeper.Friendship does not end,no matter what.

[OMB]

The true spiritual friend is our Guru, who can guide and lead us to our own inner guru. 

As Lama Thubten Yeshe quoted , " A guru is a person who can really show you the true nature of your mind and who knows the perfect remedies for your psychological problems. Someone who doesn't know his own mind can never know others' minds and therefore cannot be a guru."