On our spiritual journey, friends and strangers intersect our path time and time again. Here are 10 thoughts from different teachers on how nurturing these human connections can transform lives besides our own.
  1. Love your neighbor as yourself –Jesus
  2. With every true friendship, we build more firmly the foundations on which the peace of the whole world rests –Gandhi
  3. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond –Rumi
  4. When you see yourself in others, it is impossible to hurt anyone –Buddha
  5. Nothing but good comes to him who loves others as he loves himself –Tao Te Ching
  6. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage –Lao Tzu
  7. Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity –Khalil Gibran
  8. There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you –Paramahansa Yogananda
  9. Recognizing what brings pleasure and pain to oneself, the true yogi treats others accordingly. Thus, he desires happiness for everyone, sorrow for no one –The Bhagavad Gita
  10. I defeat my enemies when I make them my friends ―Dalai Lama
Modern life can make us feel like there isn’t time for developing deep friendships. We overestimate the difficulty of opening up to one another, not realizing that unconditional friendship is one of the simplest things we can experience.
Suggested Reading: Origins of Love – Quotes from Spiritual Traditions
Shares