What is it like living with good people? How do good people live together? It’s when a senior mendicant thinks: ‘Any mendicant, whether senior, middle, or junior, should admonish me; and I should admonish any mendicant, whether senior, middle, or junior. If a mendicant—whether senior, middle, or junior—were to admonish me, they’d be sympathetic, so I wouldn’t bother them, but say “Thank you!” And I’d deal with it when I saw what I did wrong.’ And a middle or a junior mendicant also thinks: ‘Any mendicant, whether senior, middle, or junior, may admonish me; and I’ll admonish any mendicant, whether senior, middle, or junior. If a mendicant—whether senior, middle, or junior—were to admonish me, they’d be sympathetic, so I wouldn’t bother them, but say “Thank you!” And I’d deal with it when I saw what I did wrong.’ That’s what it’s like living with good people; that’s how good people live together.”

63 “In any disciplinary issue where on both sides the endless talk, contempt for each other’s views, resentment, bitterness, and exasperation is not settled, you can expect that this disciplinary issue will lead to lasting acrimony and enmity, and the mendicants will not live comfortably.

In any disciplinary issue where on both sides the endless talk, contempt for each other’s views, resentment, bitterness, and exasperation is well settled, you can expect that this disciplinary issue won’t lead to lasting acrimony and enmity, and the mendicants will live comfortably.”

Numbered Discourses 2.64–76 The Chapter on Happiness

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