Friendliness Is Not Just Friendship (J) Poem by TD. Kumar

Friendliness is not just friendship
The difference is between a boat and a large ship
A room with few windows or open sky
Friendliness is all embracing and ever widening circle of relationship.

Buddha calls it 'Maitri, ' an expansion of oneself
Reaching out to all with love and compassion
Not a stagnant puddle but an ocean
A loving kindness, unconditional sharing of yourself.

We all have relationship of friends and family
Extending some times to community and nation but rarely to the human family
Stagnant and isolated pools of relationship often breed conflicts and wars
A couple, family, a few friends or community can gang up to have Mafia wars.

But friendship and family can be a lab and a beginning
For creating and nurturing unconditional loving
Love- spiral freezes at any level it hardens into a fort of battle
We can learn unconditional and expanding love from a tiny flower with its fragrance tenderly spreading.