Keep them closer

I am not sure I take much stock in that old saying. I really am inclined to distance myself from certain enemies. Applying a little bit of Buddhist philosophy here, there were always be people who try to cause you pain. Those people always have some sort of reason, whether they consciously realize their maliciousness or not, as to why they are causing you pain. There is always a way to end the suffering.

So keeping enemies closer seems to be counterintuitive to eliminating pain. Sometimes these aggressors are your coworkers, employers, friends, family, or yourself, and cannot easily be distanced without causing further suffering, although some only immediate and temporary. This path must be weighed. Is this path going to lead to the ultimate goal of being happy, even if it’s going to cause much unhappiness in the immediate future?

Before you can do all this, the enemies must be identified and weighted based on the levels of pain they cause. The suffering they are causing must be identified, qualified, and quantified. The paths to eliminate that suffering must be discovered and their consquential pains identified. Then you must walk down the path or choose to live with the suffering.