Note: Actually this is my homework, which need to be submit by tomorrow and I just finish, it is not that academic or excellent work.
I choose Upaddha Sutta as my topic because I have my own experiences with it and I learned so far about this topic. And it suits for the modern lifestyle as well as is the best topic I ever find in the Pali canon till now. The sutta is about the Admirable friendship. It is the 2nd sutta in the Maha Vagga(The Great Section) of the Samyutta Nikaya which is one of the 5 nikayas in Suttantapitaka of Pali Canon.
The sutta was taught in the place called Sakkara, where the Buddha Shakyamuni was living among the Sakyans. There Ven. Ananda sat down near the Buddha and said “This is half of the holy life, lord: admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie.”
And the Buddha said; “Don’t say that, Ananda. Don’t say that. Admirable friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends, companions, & comrades, he can be expected to develop & pursue the noble eightfold path.[1]
And furthermore the Buddha started to explain how does a monk develop and pursue the noble eightfold path and through this one may know how admirable friendship is the whole of the holy life.
As I have been listening since childhood from my parents that; wherever you may go, anywhere, be with good friends, stay with wise and good person, make good friends, associate with good people. And now I am getting to understand sayings of my parents as well as my teachers that it is very important to be with good friends, in the good environment where you associate with goodness. It is not that I am judging a friend or a person. As in India people usually talk, “Son of the Policeman will become Policeman one day, son of the Film Star will become film star one day and son of the thief will become thief one day”, it is in the same way that surrounded by a good companions shall become good person one day. As the Buddha, he himself said in the Upaddha Sutta (SN 45.2) “Admirable friendship is the whole of the holy life”
And now I am glad that I live in the place, the people whom I meet everyday in life, they all are good, whoever the person might be, known or unknown, from them I have learned a lot and I have been learning everyday in my life and shall be learning in the up coming days till the end of my life. For me good person is not someone who always be good with me, good person or a good friends are someone who leaves behind many memories with lots of love and care, who teaches us, the value of friendship in life. Even with bad or with less good person we can learn a lot, as I do learn from many different kinds of people, whether they are good or bad, for me it really doesn’t matter, because in every dark character there is some light of brightness from where we can learn a lot more than who is good in look.
As the Dighajanu (Vyagghapajja) Sutta (AN 8.54) clearly points out that not only associate with good people but also learn from them and emulate their good qualities.
One Time In Life 