How can we know our friends are fool?
Three main features of a fool
1. Have constant negative thinking, harboring harmful thoughts of revenge, envy and jealousy.
2. Tells lies regularly, speaks a low level of language, use abusive speech, and constantly chatters about unimportant things.
3. Behave in an abusive ways towards others. E.G. bulling and encouraging them to behave in similarly negative ways.
Actions of a fool
1. Encourages others to behave badly such as young individuals, who are naive the world, are easier to be persuaded than adults.
2. Involves themselves in other people’s school or college life, business affairs and at work such as cause problem for other with their aggressive, abusive language and negative attitudes.
3. Spreads gossip and rumors about other people such as spread negatively through mobile phone, the internet and emails.
4. Spreads their own unhappiness outward as they don’t like seeing other being positive and happy.
5. Disregards rules and regulation, can be untidy and has no sense of discipline.
6. Not easily listen to the wise or accept advice and may fiercely reject any feedback about their behavior.
Tips on how to recognize a fool
1. Does not follow acceptable standards of behavior, pushes boundaries and argumentative.
2. Try hard to persuade other to follow their example. Give example to other and even offer advice on how to be foolish.
e.g. persuade their friends to skip school, steal other’s money, or use drugs
3. Behavior and speech is of a coarse standard and unacceptable for good people to be around, to imitate or to follow.
Why being a fool is really dangerous
1. Believes what they do is okay when it is clearly wrong.
2. Suffers the loss of their good reputation and become a family and public embarrassment.
3. Unpopular, mistrusted and lose the respect of their families, true friends and others.
4. Brings problems to their families with shame and disgrace.
5. Experience loss of their dignity and the chance of a successful and happy future.
6. Experience more illness and problems than the wise.
7. Damages and destroys their goodness in this life and future lives.
8. In Buddhist belief, a foolish person will enter Hell after death.
What do we mean when we say “Associating or Mixing with a fool?
* It can mean spending time with them at school, at work, when studying, as friends, in chat rooms, by texts, by emails, and by internet contact.
* We can be sharing their company, have friendships, even marry a fool and can be in a family with fools too!
* We can trust, admire, praise, promote and even lend thing to fools.
The consequences of mixing with a fool
1. Believe in what is false to be right.
2. Viewed by the company you keep, as being untrustworthy, unreliable and like the company you mix with. “Mud Stick”!
3. If by mixing with the foolish and copying their behavior, then your future is at stake and can be seriously jeopardized.
4. You can feel very frustrated as the fool will not listen to your good advice or even think of changing their behavior.
5. You can face increased difficulties, problems and illness by mixing with the foolish.
6. Your future in this life can be damaged and for the next life you could go to the hell.
There are two types of fool
1. External fool: close family members, friends, or fellow colleagues.
2. Internal fool: ourselves.
Ways in which we can help our self not to mix with fools
1. Be continually aware of not behaving with negative actions or speech.
2. Place your thoughts on the positive and start the day with a cheerful smile.
3. Stop thinking about what happened yesterday as it is past. Learn from mistakes and don’t repeat them.
4. Practice forgiveness of others and yourself. Continue doing good deeds.
5. Practice good deeds, keep the precepts, and meditate regularly.
6. Avoid speaking to, listening to or reading about fools.
7. Try to accumulate good deeds, by thinking, reading listening and speaking positive things. E.g. Reading Dhamma, listening to wise monks, and speaking about those who do good deeds.
8. Be careful not to be negatively influenced by a fool.
9. To counter their influence we must meditate, do good deeds and keep the precepts.
10. Keep your mind as clear as possible by meditation practice and full of happy, joyful thoughts.
11. Practice being cheerful, happy and loving, with a smile like the sunshine to spread and light up the dullest of days!
12. Continually remind ourselves that there is nothing more important than striving towards the elimination of the “Internal fool”.
The benefits of not mixing with a fool
1. Not being negatively influence to do misdeeds or wrong things.
2. Able to keep doing good things.
3. Will be able to do even more good deeds now and in the future.
4. Not to be influenced or negatively harmed by fools.
5. Not to be influenced or negatively and optimistically
6. You will have a happy and bright future.
7. To be happy within yourself and with those around you.
8. You can help encourage others not to be influenced by fools, as you will be a positive role model for them to follow.
