Modern Analects 7: Who is a Positive Influence in Life?
The other day, at a study group on the Analects,
I learned about "what is a positive influence in life."
Three Types of Beneficial Friends(Ekisha Sanyu)
"To have a friend who is upright,
a friend who is sincere,
and a friend who is knowledgeable is beneficial."
Uprightrefers to a person who is honest and straightforward.
Sincererefers to a person who is faithful.
Knowledgeablerefers to a person who possesses knowledge.
A truly good friend for you is someone who is honest, straightforward, and without lies,
someone who is sincere,
and someone who is rich in knowledge and experience.
By associating with such people, you learn much and gain much,
making them precious presences.
On the other hand, there is the term "Three Types of Harmful Friends."
Three Types of Harmful Friends(Sonsha Sanyu)
"To have a friend who is pretentious,
a friend who is insincerely accommodating,
and a friend who is a smooth talker is harmful."
Pretentiousrefers to someone who puts on airs or tries to look cool.
Insincerely accommodatingrefers to someone who goes along with others just to please them,
someone who seems like a good person
with a soft demeanor at first glance,
but is actually not very sincere
and is irresponsible.
Smooth talkerrefers to someone who is glib or all talk.
It means that it is harmful to have friends who are pretentious,
friends who are irresponsible and lack sincerity despite their pleasant demeanor,
and friends who are just glib and only talk.
There are indeed such harmful people.
People who only care about how they are seen by others,
who only try to look cool,
who only do things to show off,
whose words are light and irresponsible,
or even if they say good or noble things,
they quickly forget what they said before,
and when you talk to them later, their stories don't add up.
They are people who take no responsibility for their words or actions and are not even conscious of it.
Everyone has a responsibility for their words and actions, but these are people who treat that lightly.
Even if you associate with such people,
it just leads to a low-quality interaction that continues endlessly.
Not just the other person, but you yourself—
are you becoming a person who causes harm to others?
You must be careful and conscious of that.
You shouldn't be the kind of person who only wants to avoid being harmed,
while not caring or even noticing when you cause harm to others.
If you don't notice such things and continue to act in ways that harm others,
you will be punished before you know it.
Cause and effect; what you do will come back to you in some way.
It is misguided to ignore cause and effect and lament that you are unhappy,
that you only have hardships, or to blame others or your environment.
Such people eventually end up with even more harmful thoughts and actions for themselves and others,
and both their human relationships and their way of life become regrettable.
"Three Types of Beneficial Friends."
Human growth...
I want to meet friends who can help me achieve that,
and I want to become a person who is seen that way by others as well.
In "Modern Analects," I would like to take up passages and write articles about what they might mean if we think about them in a modern context.
By interpreting them through matters that are familiar and easy for modern people to visualize, I hope to make the Analects more accessible, and even if there are words that are hard to hear, I hope you feel they strike a chord.
Shall we study the Analects together?
I have compiled articles related to the Analects in a magazine.
