Buddha: Don't Associate With Fools

The Buddha tells us that our relationships are “the whole of this spiritual life”; that in fact, they can greatly determine both our happiness, or our sorrow. Because of this, he urges us to use our practice to closely discern which relationships we should nurture, and which we might want to abandon. This talk dives into the teachings on this in more detail, and offers examples about how we might go about doing this.

Reviews

This was thoughtful and made me a little sad, because I realized that my friend of 20 years is no longer on the same path with me...Now I understand why I begin to feel reluctant to meet up with her and feel emotionally drained after meetings💔

This is the best talk I believe I have heard for a long time.
💫⭐️🌟💖🌟⭐️💫
2 years later: Ditto my earlier sentiments!
Listen to this if one is ever in relationship quandary.

Another excellent share. Beautifully articulated and much to contemplate on. Thank you. 🙏

I am a Catholic, who welcomes and embraces other religions and spiritual practices. I understand what the Buddha says, to surround ourselves with people that nurture our spirit, without judging others who we don’t want to associate with. The same way that Jesus associated himself with a prostitute, a tax collector, and other people that the Pharisees considered “unclean” and sinful; however, Jesus showed mercy to them and forgiveness. I’d rather associate myself with people who seem lost or are in pain, than with people who seem to be well put together with the “perfect life”, like the Pharisees, who followed the law, but their hearts were hard and cold, and they placed judgement on everyone around them. I’d rather stay away from people who are sitting on the righteous horse, they’re throne of hypocrisy, believing that they are perfect, than those who are suffering but whose hearts are open for love and forgiveness. My son is an alcoholic and a drug addict struggling with his disease for 10 years. He had been sober for a long time but sadly recently relapsed overdosed and almost died. He had a spiritual experience calling him to life which made him seek for help. He is in treatment now. I’m aware I’m not in control and cannot cure him, but I will always show him love and and the mercy of God. I do not associate with him when he is consuming, nor do I enable him when his soul is lost, I pray and pray and pray in these dark times and surrender to Gods will, but when my son seeks for help I run to him so I can give him the good news! that God loves him! that I love him unconditionally!
When my son is sober, he is the kindest, most generous, charismatic, beautiful human being I know. What I learned from this talk is that the relationships that are most toxic to me and that I must dissociate from are from the people who may seem stable, responsible and functional, but are not honest with me, do not care about my feelings or my well-being, do not care about cultivating a virtuous life, those who value money, power, and influence more than compassion. Those are the people that I want to stay away from. I will say a prayer for me not to pass judgment on them so I can forgive. I will not spend energy in wanting to please people like them in trying to be accepted by them in caring about their opinion of me, or expecting true friendship from them. Thank you for this talk. Peace and love. Namaste, Amen.

Beautiful talk.. a lot to take from ✨💫🙏🏻thank you