The following are some thoughts regarding “Right Livelihood.” After each statement, please consider how your livelihood does or does not reflect what is being shared. If you find that your livelihood or daily occupations are not in accord with the perspectives being offered by the Buddha or other teachers, without judgment or self-criticism, please try to have your work situation or daily life become more in alignment with “Right Livelihood.” It may be helpful to write your thoughts and experiences in your journal.
From the Buddha:
Balanced livelihood
“Herein, Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income.
“Just as the goldsmith, or an apprentice of his, knows, on holding up a balance, that by so much it has dipped down, by so much it has tilted up; even so a householder, knowing his income and expenses leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that thus his income will stand in excess of his expenses, but not his expenses in excess of his income.” AN 8.54
Bhante Gunaratana has created a series of questions that we can ask ourselves to determine if we are engaged in “Right Livelihood.” I have paraphrased some of his thoughts.
- Is my job an inherently unskillful occupation? Does it cause harm by definition? Does it involve manufacturing, selling, or using weapons? Does it entail harming living beings? Does it support the formation of addictions such as gambling or drinking?
Sometimes the question may arise, “What if my occupation can indirectly cause harm such as being a steel worker where the raw metal can be used for creating weapons? Bhante says, “As a general rule, the more distance there is between your on-the-job activities and the harm it might befall others as an indirect result, the less likely that the job fits the category of inherently wrong occupations.”
- Does my job or daily occupation cause me to break any of the five core precepts?
- Are there aspects of my job which fill my mind with guilt, remorse, uncertainly, fear, or doubt and prevent my mind from becoming centered and peaceful?
The following are some additional thoughts about Right Livelihood that you may want to contemplate:
- Do I work for an organization that treats competitors as the enemy thereby fostering feelings of aversion? If so, do I personally avoid thinking in this manner?
- Does my organization see its clients or customers in terms of profits and is it rarely concerned about service? If so, am I still able to provide superior support and service to my customers or clients?
- Does my organization promote their products or services using fear tactics?
- Does my organization make exaggerated claims about its products or services?
- Am I too overburdened with work to give proper service to those I am dedicated to servicing?
- If you met the Buddha, would there be aspects of your work that you would avoid mentioning since you knew they were unskillful?
Our livelihood is such an essential part of our lives. No wonder the Buddha singled it out as one of the factors of the Noble Eight Fold Path.
There are other deeply spiritual ways to approach our work and daily occupations. These will be covered in the next pre-training contemplation.
PREPARATION ASSIGNMENT #18
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD #2
Please review the following contemplations, answering the questions in your journal if you feel that would be helpful. Please remember that these questions are to stimulate awareness, rather than self-judgment or recrimination:
- Are you aware of your unique visions, talents and gifts? How does life express itself uniquely through you?
- Are you following your own creative visions or are compromising them for fear of not being approved or accepted?
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has
been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be
living is the one you are living. Joseph Campbell
Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for
that work has been put in every heart. Rumi
The Universal is always the same, the specifics are always different. Robert Aitken
- Do you view your work as a form of self-expression?
- Do you care about what you do?
- Do you love what you do?
The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it. Mother Teresa
- Do you give your all to what you do?
By the work, one knows the workman. Jean de La Fontaine
- Do you see your life’s work as a way to make the world a better
place? Joanna Macy has come up with ten human needs. Which of
these needs does your work strive to satisfy?
- Environment
- Water
- Clothing
- Food
- Housing
- Health Services
- Communication
- Fuel
- Education
10) Cultural & Spiritual Development
- What personal, cultural, and universal values are most important to
you? Are the things you do in the world aligned with these values?
- As you pursue your vocation and avocations, do you consider the happiness of others as well as your own?
We begin from the recognition that all beings cherish happiness and do not want suffering. It then becomes both morally wrong and pragmatically unwise to pursue only one’s happiness oblivious to the feelings and aspirations of all others who surround us as members of the same human family. The wiser course is to think of others when pursuing our own happiness. The Dalai Lama
When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-
preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of
consciousness. Joseph Campbell
A man’s value to the community primarily depends on how far his
feelings, thoughts, and actions are directed towards promoting the
good of his fellows. Albert Einstein
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the
only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have
sought and found how to serve. Albert Schweitz
- Are you totally present in what you do? Do you listen to the wisdom of
each moment as it arises? In what way do you approach all of your daily
activities with a “beginner’s mind?
- Finally, and most spiritually significant, do you realize that you are
not the doer? If you do realize that you are not the doer, how is it
that the work gets done?
Please enjoy this month’s work on this Path Factor of Right Livelihood.
May you be well, happy and peaceful.
