December Reflection: To Walk with Good Friends

2025.12.01.

To Walk with Good Friends

By Daikō Iizuka, Head Priest

Hello everyone. This is Daikō Iizuka, Chief Priest of Ichibata Yakushi Temple. The autumn leaves on the temple grounds have deepened in color, and the busy month of December has arrived. I imagine many of you are spending each day in a rush.

This year, both for Ichibata Yakushi and for myself, many unusual and unexpected events overlapped. It was truly through the support and kindness of so many people. Once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.

“To walk with good friends is the whole of this sacred path.”
These are the words of the Buddha found in the early Buddhist scripture Saṃyukta Āgama (the “Miscellaneous Āgama”). The same words were written on a hanging scroll at the temple in Kyoto where I first became a disciple when I was in junior high school.

One day, the disciple Venerable Ānanda asked the Buddha: “Lord, I believe that having good friends is about half of this path of practice. What do you think?” Hearing this, the Buddha smiled gently and replied as if guiding him: “Ānanda, do not say that. Having good friends is not half of the holy path. Having good friends is the whole of the holy path.”

We may wonder at this. Is the Buddha not exaggerating when he says “the whole”?
Ānanda’s “half” seems more reasonable: after all, the other “half” must surely be one’s own effort.

Why, then, did the Buddha say “the whole”? Here we sense the depth of how the Buddha viewed conditions, or the web of supportive causes that shape our lives. We tend to divide things into “help from others” and “one’s own effort.”

Yet, from the Buddha’s perspective, even what we call “our own effort” is upheld by countless conditions: the Gift of being born, the kindness of being raised, the opportunities we were given to learn, the many encounters and relationships that have shaped us.
These countless connections have formed the person we are today. Our so-called “own strength” is itself supported by the accumulation of these conditions.

This is why, in our daily lives, we should consciously speak words such as “thank you,” “I am grateful,” “I am supported by many causes.” These are not merely words for others. They are words that also seep gently into our own hearts, like a quiet mantra or a living spirit of sound. We live through the support of innumerable connections. With this awareness, may we trust the person we are today and take the next step—quietly, steadily, and with sincerity.

As the busy year-end and New Year season approaches,
please take good care of yourselves.