This discourse was taught by the Blessed One, taught by the Arahant, the fully enlightened Supreme Buddha. This is as I heard:
“Monks, with regard to external factors, I do not see another single factor so helpful as noble friendship for a monk who is a trainee, who has not yet attained liberation but lives aspiring for the supreme security from bondage, Nibbāna. Monks, a monk who has noble friends abandons what is unwholesome and develops what is wholesome”
This is the meaning of what the Blessed One said. So, with regard to this, it was said:
When a monk has noble friends, is reverential and respectful, and does what his friends advise with wise awareness and mindfulness, he gradually attains the end of suffering, Nibbāna.
This, too, is the meaning of what was said by the Blessed One. This is exactly as I heard.
