Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

The saying treats friendship as part of life’s natural impermanence: people, like days, come and go. Rather than clinging to what has passed or anxiously chasing what is new, it urges attention to the quality of one’s engagement in the present. “Meaningful” here implies relationships (and days) shaped by care, ethical intention, and mutual benefit—values often emphasized in Buddhist-inflected teachings associated with the Dalai Lama. The comparison also reframes loss: the end of a friendship is not necessarily a failure but a change, and what matters is whether one has lived that connection—and that time—with purpose and kindness.