Principles of Social development

When a seedling first sprouts its germinal shoot is undifferentiated

Conclusions

Our Human Environment in the Six Directions includes those who are the most influential in our lives

Self-Discipline in allocating one’s earnings

The Lord Buddha not only taught scrupulous ethics for earning a living, but also how earnings should be allocated so that one can live without financial problems

The Good Friend must be Scrupulous

The most time-consuming activity in a person’s life is to earn a living. How should a true friend earn a living, one may ask?

The benefits from studying on True Friend characteristics

“…the wise man [pandita] knows four kinds of True Friends well. They are: The Helpful Friend [upakaraka], the Constant Friend [samanasukhadukkha]

The Meaning of a True Friend

In the previous chapter we defined the meaning of ‘friends’ as those in whom we invest time, energy and respurces for example, someone with whom we associate regularly, working together or at least in the same place. In fact, such a definition is only a small part of a much wider scope of meaning covered by the word ‘friend’

Why do we need to identify our false friends?

Naturally we need to carefully observe the behaviors of those with whom we associate. It may to be easy to be able to tell what kind of a person they are because the persons may appear as our friends when is fact they could be false friends or even enemies

With False Friends, who needs enemies?

The word ‘friend’ here refers to people in whom we invest time, trust and resources

The Virtuous must see the harm of the Six Roads to Ruin

The Six Roads to Ruin [apayamukha] mean specifically the six forms of behaviour which lead to the inadvertent erosion of our wealth.

Conclusion: The Characteristics of a Virtuous One

It was due to the great compassion of the Lord Buddha that he deigned to teach Noble Discipline, not only for monks, but for householders too, in the form of Noble Self-Discipline for Householders [gihivinaya], as a guideline for achieving happiness in life and developing society.