Living With Fools
Asevana ca balanam panditanañca sevana, "Don't associate with fools. Associate only with wise people." "Fools" are people whose minds and actions are unskillful and "evil". They are unskillful in their actions - killing, stealing, having careless sex - and unskillful in their words: telling lies, creating disharmony, deceiving other people, engage in gossip. They are unskillful in their thoughts - judging others, conceptualizing, lost in drunken fantasy. Fools are the enemy of society because unskillful behavior makes us the enemy of society. Gossiping, for example, makes us the enemy of those we tell tales about, enemies of the persons we share our filth with, enemies of ourselves as we spew our half truths and lies. That's one example of a fool. Serving one's self over serving others is yet another. Being willing to harm others is one of the prevalent examples of foolishness in the world today. The foolishness of feeling mo...