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10% Happier with Dan Harris

What the Buddha Taught About Friendship | Kate Johnson

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.612.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Friendship was important to the Buddha. In fact, there's a whole passage in the Buddhist scriptures, or suttas, about friendship, with seven strategies for friendship, some of which we will discuss in this episode, with Kate Johnson.

 

Kate has been meditating for over twenty years and is a graduate of Spirit Rock's four-year teacher training program. She is the author of a new book that has drawn praise from people like Lama Rod Owens, Jack Kornfield, and Ruth King. The book is called Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World. In the book, and in this conversation, Kate draws on an ancient Buddhist text known as the Mitta Sutta to offer actionable strategies for realness, generosity, and other key ingredients for friendship. 

 

Radical Friendship is available on Bookshop, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble or Amazon

 

To practice cultivating radical friendship, check out some related meditations in the Ten Percent Happier app. If you're already listening to this episode in the Ten Percent Happier app, just scroll down to the "Related" section for meditations on friendship from Sebene Selassie, Oren Jay Sofer, and Joseph Goldstein. If you're not a subscriber, click here or download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps and click on the "Podcasts" tab to get started.

 

And while you're there, be sure to listen to our new podcast, Twenty Percent Happier, available exclusively in the Ten Percent Happier app

 

 

 

Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/kate-johnson-389

 

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the 10% happier podcast.

0:05.9

I'm Dan Harris.

0:07.9

Hello, hello.

0:12.6

I get how maybe friendship might not seem like the most pressing psychological contemplative

0:19.4

or geopolitical issue.

0:21.8

Yeah, yeah, I have enough friends I'm doing fine.

0:24.1

Just teach me how to meditate.

0:26.6

If that is your attitude, just know that a guy named the Buddha disagreed.

0:31.6

There's a whole passage in the Buddhist scriptures or sutas about friendship with seven strategies

0:37.2

for friendship, some of which we're going to discuss today.

0:40.2

There's also a famous story where one of the Buddha's disciples came to him after a fascinating

0:45.5

Dharma discussion with some buddies and exclaimed, friendship is 50% of the path.

0:51.2

The Buddha corrected him and said, no, it's 100% of the path.

0:54.6

This is, by the way, or not exact translations.

0:57.1

Anyway, friendship was super important to the Buddha, but it is clearly a dying art.

1:01.8

The number of close friendships that Americans have has declined over the past decades.

1:06.4

In 1990, 33% of Americans said they had 10 or more friends.

1:10.6

In 2021, that is down to 13%.

1:14.4

In 1993, 3% said they had no friends.

1:17.2

Now it's up to 12%.

1:19.9

My guest today is Kate Johnson.

1:21.3

She's a former modern dancer who's been meditating for more than 20 years.

...

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