Spiritual friendship with the Buddha

I'm wondering what the Buddha said about **spiritual friendship with the Buddha himself**. From [SN 45.2](https://suttacentral.net/en/sn45.2) : > By the following method too, Ānanda, it may be understood how the > entire holy life is good friendship, good companionship, good > comradeship: by relying upon me as a good friend, Ānanda, beings > subject to birth are freed from birth; beings subject to aging are > freed from aging; beings subject to death are freed from death; beings > subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair are > freed from sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure, and despair. By > this method, Ānanda, it may be understood how the entire holy life is > good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. **Are there any other texts that bring up this subject? What have later Buddhist teachers said about this?** References (from Sutras or otherwise) are welcome! Grateful for help and with kind regards, Tord *** ***UPDATE to make the question more clear:*** **The question is specifically about friendship with the Buddha himself (not general friendship on the path).** I have chosen to call this friendship "spiritual" but maybe "virtual" or another word would be better, or another word that describes that the friendship is different from a person alive in the typical sense