Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Types of Friendship : Beneficial Friends and Harmful Friends

Do you choose your friends well...?

Here is some Ancient Wisdom...

TYPES OF FRIENDSHIP 
BENEFICIAL FRIENDSHIP AND HARMFUL FRIENDSHIP

A Philosophical Approach to Life
Musings
By
VIKRAM KARVE

I invest in books. 
 
Just like some other investments  where one invests and forgets about it for years  sometimes I buy a book  and I may not read it for years.

Whenever I buy a book  I always write the date and place of purchase. 
 
This morning while I was cleaning my bookcase  I came across a book titled A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy which I had picked up on 26 Jan 2003 at the annual Strand Book Fair at Churchgate Mumbai. 

I opened a random page  and here is the gem of ancient wisdom that I read about various Types of Friendship:


6 KINDS OF FRIENDSHIP – 3 BENEFICIAL and  3 HARMFUL

Confucius said:
 
There are

Three kinds of Friendship which are Beneficial

and

Three kinds of Friendship which are Harmful


3 Types of BENEFICIAL FRIENDSHIPS

1. Friendship with the Upright 

2. Friendship with the Truthful

3. Friendship with the well-informed 

These three types of friendship is BENEFICIAL


3 Types of HARMFUL FRIENDSHIPS

1. Friendship with those who flatter – especially yes-men who will lead you up the garden path

2. Friendship with those who are meek – and are so weak that they compromise with their principles 

3. Friendship with those who talk cleverly

These three types of friendship are HARMFUL 


So  Dear Reader  while selecting your friends  bear in mind the above analect of Confucius  and choose your friends with care.

Invest in beneficial friendships and make good friends

and 

Avoid harmful friendships with those who can cause you harm.  

Well  I always believe that it is best to have a philosophical approach to life. 

So  I am going to read this book of ancient wisdom. 

And  from time to time  I will share with you some gems of ancient wisdom with you in my blog. 

VIKRAM KARVE 


NB: This is a revised repost of my earlier blog posts in my blog at urls: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2010/10/friendship.html  and  http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2013/01/the-art-of-friendship.html

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