The Kalama Sutta teaches us not to put our faith blindly on an authority or teachers.
How then do we find our Kalyanamitta = spiritual friends?
The Thana Sutta provides us good guidelines by observing 4 traits:
Only after a long period, not short period;
by one who is attentive, not by one who is inattentive:
by one who is discerning, not by one who is not discerning can we observe the 4 traits.
1. It's through discussion (speech) that a person's discernment may be known.
- From the way this person raises an issue, from the way he applies (his reasoning, from the "way he addresses a question) he dull, not discern? It's through dealing with a person that his purity may be known.
2. It's through dealing with a person (association} that his purity may be known
- Does this person deal one way when one-on-one, another way when with two, another way when three, another way when with many?
Does his earlier dealings jibe with his later dealings? Is he pure or impure with his dealings?
3.It's through living together that a person's virtue may be known
- Has this person been untorn, unbroken, unspotted, unsplatted, consistent in his actions?
Has he practiced consistently with regard to the precepts?
Is he a virtuous, principled person, not an unprincipled one?
4.It's through adversity that a person's endurance may be known.
- Does he beat his breast
or become distraught when suffering loss of relatives, loss of wealth or loss through disease?
These eight worldly conditions spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions:
gain, loss. status. disgrace. censure, praise, pleasure & pain.
Beneficial practices that we can include in our daily practices:
• Gratitude - saying thanks
• Asking for Forgiveness
• taking Aspirations
• Sharing of Merits
A flower falls,
even though we love it
A weed grows
even though we do not love it.
