The association with unwholesome friends and companions is the worst of all paths to ruin — for it brings greater destruction than anything else, and it is the root cause from which all other paths to ruin follow in succession.
Observe carefully: the various unwholesome habits that people carry within them — where did they come from? Consider drinking and intoxication, late-night carousing, gambling, and all manner of harmful conduct. Did fathers, mothers, teachers, and mentors ever teach or encourage such things? The answer is no.
All of these were acquired through friends — a little from this person, a little from that. Once we become infected with these seeds of unwholesomeness, we bring to bear upon them all the knowledge and capability we have diligently studied and cultivated — and the result is that we become even more deeply entrenched in wrongdoing than the very friends who led us astray in the first place.
Therefore, the Sammāsambuddha taught that the first step on the path to success in life is the non-association with the foolish and the wicked: “Asevanā ca bālānaṃ etam maṅgalam uttamaṃ” — the non-association with the foolish is a supreme blessing. This, indeed, is the very first of the Auspicious Blessings.
October 6th, 2019
