FRIENDSHIP HAS BEEN one of the subjects most ignored by almost all the philosophers. Perhaps we take it for granted that we understand what it means; hence we have remained ignorant about its depths, about its possibilities of growth, about its different colors, with different significances.
The most important thing to remember is: one needs friends because one is incapable of being alone. And as long as one needs friends, one cannot be much of a friend — because the need reduces the other to an object.
Only the man who is capable of being alone is also capable of being a friend. But it is not his need, it is his joy; it is not his hunger, not his thirst, but his abundance of love that he wants to share.
When such a friendship exists, it should not be called a friendship, because it has taken on a totally new dimension: I call it "friendliness." It has gone beyond relationship, because all relationships are bondages in some way or other — they make you a slave and they enslave others. Friendliness is simply the joy of sharing without any conditions, without any expectations, with no desire that something should be returned — not even gratefulness.
Friendliness is the purest kind of love.
It is not a need, it is not a necessity:
It is sheer abundance, overflowing ecstasy.
OSHO