We have heard from a few people that they have gotten into the Dharma and now have Dharma friends, but their Dharma friends want to go out to the pub, to go smoke a joint, to go to the movies, to go to the casinos, or whatever. Then you get really confused because “hey, these are my Dharma friends, they are the ones I meditate with, we have the same teacher, we do all these things together, how come they are acting like that? Are they really my friends? What is the story? How come they are acting like this?”

People practise the Dharma according to their own ability and in terms of their own comfort level. For those people who are still doing a lot of the things that they used to do before they met the Dharma, they are practising at their comfort level, according to their ability. Your comfort level might be much broader. Your ability might be much broader. You are not interested in doing the same kinds of things that they are still doing. No need to be disillusioned with them. No need to be angry. No need to think that there is something wrong with you. It is just that you are both practising at different levels of the path.

If those people are doing that, you do not have to feel obliged to join them. Find the people who are doing, and abstaining from doing the same things that you want to do and abstain from doing. Within a big Dharma group, go for the people whom you have more in common with. You do not need to criticise anybody. “They are just doing things that do not interest me, and I want to do this.”

Remember, not everybody who is a Buddhist is a Buddha. People really have different levels of comfort in practising.

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