Ananda [AH-nuhn-duh], a cousin of the Buddha and among the first of his followers, had a reputation for attending all his talks and accurately remembering all he said. Except once.
Ananda must have skipped the talk about friendship. One day, to clarify a point he was unsure about, he turned to the Buddha and asked if it was true that friendship is half of the spiritual life.
“Not so, Ananda,” said the Buddha, “friendship is the whole of the spiritual life.” (!?)
notes and links
photo by Briana Tozour on Unsplash
parenthetical DuckDuckGo bang commands (!?) link to search results for terms they follow
ananda (!di) / “perfect bliss”