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The Blessed Buddha once said:
I am a friend and helper to
all,
I am sympathetic to all living
beings.
I develop a mind full of love &
one
who always delight in
harmlessness!
I gladden my mind, fill it with
joy,
and make it immovable and
unshakable.
I develop these divine states of
mind
not cultivated by simple men.
Theragatha 648-9
I am a friend of the footless,
I am a friend of the bipeds;
I am a friend of those with four
feet,
I am a friend of the
many-footed.
May not the footless harm me,
may not the bipeds harm me,
may not those with four feet
harm me, &
may not those with many feet
harm me.
AN II 72
A friend, who always lends a
hand,
a friend both in sorrow and joy,
a friend who offers good
counsel,
a friend who sympathizes too.
These are the four kinds of true
friends:
One who is wise, who have
understood much,
will always cherish and serve
such friends
just as a mother tends her only
child.
DN III, 188
Among tigers, lions, leopards &
bears I lived in the jungle.
No one was frightened of me, nor
did I fear anyone.
Uplifted by such universal
friendliness, I enjoyed the
forest.
Finding great solace in such
sweetly silenced solitude
Suvanna-sama Jataka 540
And how does a Bhikkhu abide
with his mind imbued with
friendliness
extending over one direction?
Just as he would feel
friendliness on
seeing a dearly favourite
person, so he extends this same
loving-kindness
to all beings in all directions,
one by one, & as above so below.
Abhidhamma
Pitaka: Appamañña-vibhanga
Bhikkhus, whatever kinds of
worldly merit there are, all are
not worth
one sixteenth part of the
release of mind by universal
friendliness;
in shining, glowing and beaming
radiance, in invisible shielding
protection,
such release of mind by
universal friendliness far
excels & surpasses them all...
Itivuttaka 27
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