The friendly snake" that seems docile by your side...... An idea that reminds me of a striking, and often overlooked Buddhist teaching, the concept of near and far enemies of the four foundational virtues.
Known as 'The Four Immeasurables', equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion and sympathetic-joy are fundamental to Buddhist morality. The far enemies are classic opposites: hatred, ill will, cruelty, and jealousy. The near enemies for each immeasurable are equanimity: indifference, loving-kindness: sentimentality, compassion: pity, sympathetic-joy: hypocrisy.
While not encompassing the full spectrum of this underappreciated teaching, the idea brings to mind some famous lines from Little Gidding by T.S. Eliot, "And last, the rending pain of re-enactment / Of all that you have done, and been; the shame / Of motives late revealed, and the awareness / Of things ill done and done to others’ harm / Which once you took for exercise of virtue. / Then fools’ approval stings, and honor stains."
5-min freewrite inspired by C/Freewriters daily writing challenge prompt: friendly snake (followed by a quick fact and quote check)
Photo by Paolo Chiabrando on Unsplash
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