Friendship ... This Friendship Sangha-Ship!

[Guest guest]

"Is friendship the weaving of the red strings of two hearts?

Is it the blending of two minds into a spacious one-mind?

 

Is it the spouting of love founts together-

To strengthen the rush of love on droughty souls?

 

Is it the one rose grown 'twixt twin mind-branchlets

Of one compassionate stem?

 

Is it the one thinking in two bodies?

Or, is it like two strong stallions,

Disparate in color and mien,

Pulling the chariot of life together

To the single goal with one mind sight?

 

Friendship is noble, fruitful, holy-

When two seperate souls march in difference

Yet in harmony, agreeing and disagreeing,

Glowingly improving diversely,

With one common longing to find solace in true pleasure.

 

When ne'er the lover seeks

Self-comfort at cost of the one beloved,

Then, in that garden of selflessness

Fragrant friendship perfectly flowers.

 

For friendship is a hybrid, born of two souls,

The blended fragrance of two unlike flowers

Blown together in love's caressing breeze.

 

Friendship is born from the very core

Of secret, inexplicable likings.

 

Friendship is the fountain of true feelings.

Friendship grows in both likeness and difference.

 

Friendship grows tall and sturdy

In the soil of oneness in body, mind, and soul.

 

Demands, deceptions, sordid sense of possession,

Courtesy's lack, narrow self-love, suspicion,

These are cankers which eat at the heart of friendship.

 

Ah, friendship! Flowering, heaven-born plant!

Nurtured art thou in the soil of measureless love,

In the seeking of soul-progress together

By two who would smooth the way each for the other.

 

Thou art watered by attentions of affection

And the tender dews of inner and outer sweetness

Of the inmost, selfless heart's devotion.

 

Ah, friendship! Where thy soul-born flowers fall-

There, on that sacred shrine of fragrance,

The Friend of all friends craves to come and remain!"

 

~Paramahansa Yogananda

 

 

 

Love & Peace,

 

Mazie