Once the Buddha’s disciple Ananda asked him about friendship. Ananda knew that having good and encouraging friends was very important for the path. He even wondered whether having good friends is half the path.
“No, Ananda,” the Buddha told him,”having good friends isn’t half of the Holy Life. Having good friends is the whole of the Holy Life.”
Norman Fischer
from When You Greet Me I Bow; Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen