Bad Company till the day I die

I'm hoping some of you all remember the supergroup Bad Company, if not just disregard the latter of half of the title of this post. I'm a little tired today as I have just returned from a hike up to Kapan Monastery. I'll throw a couple of photos your way of this gorgeous little gompa and stupa. Pressing on with the practices.

Practice #5

If, while befriending someone, the three poisons increase,

The activities of study, reflection and meditation degenerate,

And love and compassion disappear,

Then it is the practice of the bodhisattvas to give up this bad company.

(Note: The three poisons are attachment, anger and ignorance) Individuals who increase the three poisons, decrease study, reflection, meditation, love and compassion should be conceived of as dangerous wild animals. If one keeps company with unwholesome friends their faults will rub off, and the virtuous Dharma, which has not yet arisen, will not arise.

Parents tend to see this one coming. I can't remember all the times I heard my folks give the lecture about, "you are who you hang out with." They were mostly giving this talk to Kelley, but I heard it a few times. Wisdom and experience seem to agree that if a person hangs around a degenerate group long enough they will become degenerate. You can even find Biblical backing for this in 2 Cor 14 & 17, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath the righteous with the unrighteous and what communion hath light with darkness. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you." However...

Audience is important here. This Bodhisattva practice is directed to those just beginning the path, my parents were addressing their children, and St. Paul was addressing a young church in the middle of a pagan environment. These admonitions are not meant as hard and fast rules used to justify isolation (for more on this see Anabaptists). As one grows in faith, he\she moves from being influenced to influencing, from receiver of bad habits to instiller of good habits. We should investigate and evaluate our own standing in our faith. Some situations might require us to abandon bad company. Then again, some situations might require us to eat with tax-collectors. (I give a big shout out to my Dad on this topic for his work with the Kairos prison ministries.)