Your Environment Matters

Nam
Budhay you take a healthy seed and plant it in an infertile pot or in fertile soil what will happen to the seed Slowly by slowly it will start to die it will never grow the problem was not in the seed the problem was in the environment same goes with our life although we are good people although we have good qualities inside us the environment or the people around us can affect the good qualities and can affect our inner values and that is why in Buddhist teachings the biggest amount of focus is given for the people who we associate at one time Venable Anand as from the Buddha says to the Buddha the Buddha I think half of this Buddhist practice depends on who we associate or half of the Buddhist practice depends on good friends then the Buddha said Ananda do not say that Anand the full Buddhist practice the fullest Buddhist practice depends on the whole Buddhist practice depends on having good friends and having better friends in Buddhism we call them kalana the noble friends so who are noble friends Noble friends are the friends who you who they direct you to do do good things and to be a better person and to cultivate the inner values like love compassion patience and practicing the Dharma all these things the people who help you to develop these things so in the Buddha's teachings having good friends around you is considered as a blessing to your life the Buddha says this in Maham the Buddha says that means the Buddha said do no associate with people with lower qualities associate with people with higher good qualities okay having a good association with people who have higher values and higher qualities will help you to improve in your life and that is why in the Buddhist teachings a major focus is given to the people who we associate even in the monks Community when we are living with monks monks live in a one in one aim with a one aim to practice the inner qualities like love and compassion sharing meditations and spiritual practice when you're being around such a community it is very easy for you to practice it now when I was when I begin the practice of the monks Hood it was a it was a challenge for us to practice these qualities like meditation for an example it was very difficult to meditate in the beginning we had group meditations that means our senior monks meditated with us okay we were sitting with the senior monks and we were meditating and we see from the beginning of of our monkhood we saw that our senior monks are meditating for hours and hours and that inspired us to meditate so having and being with a community of people who are like minded and being with people who can help you to improve is a blessing for all of our life now when I say this I know the question that comes to your mind how can I have people around me that are that helps me to improve okay because I live in a toxic environment maybe you're living in a toxic environment now that is the problem that we most of the other people have right and then you may ask like I am living in a toxic environment so how can I find good friends and how can I find people who are going to help me well I know we don't get the exact environment that we expect all the time there will be always toxic people around us there will be always unfavorable environments around around us okay but from time to time we get into contact with people with better qualities and better people and with higher values and do not lose that Association connect with them be with them inspired get inspired with them and then associate keep associating those people from time to time the more you associate them the more you develop the inner qualities it's something like this if you grow a plant in a little pot right for an example if you take a bonide plant it grows in a little pot right so the environment is limited the soil is limited okay so what happens to the tree it doesn't grow much okay it starts to start to grow slowly but because of that is because of the environment that is because the roots are stuck in that little amount of soil what will happen if one just one root came out of that pot and got connected with the ground what will happen the tree starts to grow same like that we will if you get one connection just one connection with a better person or a better person who has good qualities and who can help you you should not lose that connection right you have to be connected with that person and you have to grow and that will help you to grow in your life so then the environment that you live in will not matter to you because you have that valuable connection with that one person okay and that is why we need to choose the people who we associate wisely because who we are is the people are the people who we associate and that is why they say that you are the average of five people who you associate just look around the people who are living with you okay just look around the people who you share your life and see you're the average of those five people who who are very close to you so that is why we need to be very wise and very keen when we pick friends and when we pick people to associate and if you got one just one connection with a person who has better qualities and good qualities that who can help you to improve never lose that connection be connected with that person and improve
yourself Nam buddhaya