To get the best out of this website, please read on...
We have set your language based on your browser language settings or location. To change language use the flag above.
We'd like you to have the best possible experience of our new site, and we noticed you're using a browser that has a feature called Javascript turned off.
We've designed things so Free Buddhist Audio will continue to work for you anyway, but the site will look and work much better if you turn Javascript on. It's very easy! See how to enable JavaScript in your browser for more information.
We'd like you to have the best possible experience of our new site, and we notice you're using an older browser that isn't compatible with some of the latest developments on the internet.
We've designed things so Free Buddhist Audio will continue to work for you, but we invite you to a better experience of the web now and in future if you have a few minutes to upgrade...
Install (or update from an older version) a future-friendly browser:
Tell a friend about this talk!
Audio | view transcript | Other talks from Padmaloka
A companion talk to Paramabandhu's '15 Points for Friendship', this is a good general evocation of the place of friendship in Buddhist thought, particularly Sangharakshita's. The root of things is a sense of duty and fidelity - seen here through the glass of Sufi thought as expounded by Al Ghazali...
Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2001
| 1. | Spiritual friendship and shared ideals; The Duties of Brotherhood in Islam by Al Ghazali; why duty? (5:39) | |
| 2. | Rights and Duties - an essay by Sangharakshita; attitudes to rights in the west - parents, consumption (5:45) | |
| 3. | Visiting another culture - Indian health and safety (3:09) | |
| 4. | Performing duties rather than expecting rights; generosity and Enlightenment; duty as a gateway to freedom (4:16) | |
| 5. | Befriending; Aristotles's threefold classification of friendship as discussed by Subhuti; utility, pleasure, the Good (6:39) | |
| 6. | Not wrong but limited; spiritual friendship as a value in itself; a hierarchy of friendships; isolation (5:15) | |
| 7. | Needs and insistence; the duties from Al Ghazali's Duties of Brotherhood in Islam - material generosity; placing your brother on an equal footing; preferring your brother to yourself (8:25) | |
| 8. | Serving your brother when he asks; forgiveness - faults in relation to religion and to yourself (6:54) | |
| 9. | Fidelity - loyalty and sincerity (2:40) | |
| 10. | Summary of the talk; practising friendship on retreat (6:27) |
Total running time: 55:09
