Mirror, Mirror
The Daily Buddha
Good Day,
Have you ever asked yourself what the role of friendship is? Sure there is companionship, sharing and other such functions, but is there more to it than just "like minds" hanging out?
For me good friends are like mirrors - when you look into them your own face, your own circumstances are shown right back to you. Much like a mirror good friends tell you when your face is dirty or you need a haircut. A mirror also tells you when you are doing well - it is unbiased and shows the good and the bad qualities equally and clearly.
My point is that good friends are like mirrors, all things are reflected back to us through our friendships. Our emotions, our actions, our very causes and effects are reflected to us through others. Without others it is though we are sitting in a dark room trying to stare into the mirror. All the qualities of our being are still intact, but we have no outside view, nothing beyond what WE think and feel.
I know many of us have never thought about relationships in this way, but if you consider it carefully the conclusion will be the same - we need others to live a full, balanced life, to show us the nature of all beings so that we can better understand ourselves.
Peace and Love, Jim
Access: Public
acceptance
July 2008
You are so right!!! I had met one true friend and that was a man that is 30 years older then me and we were in prison, yes in prison and for the ones that think that is awful, some day you will see the light when you get out of the prison that you are in and have been there all your so called life, you are just not aware of it. My old friend and I was much closer then I was with my wife, by this I mean my friend and I shared our most inner thoughts. We were a mirror to each other and this is something that I never experience with not only my wife but nobody else. It is not everyone that can do this, the reason is because the heart has to be open, and then the next big step is meeting another one that has open their heart. Until I meet another with there heart open, I will use the ones that I meet with their hearts closed to keep mine open, because I think opening the heart is just a step, and there are many more to keep it open.