What Does "Right Livelihood" Mean to You?

Last week I asked my newsletter readers and my blog readers to answer a few questions about the content for the “right livelihood” e-course I’m currently creating. 

One question I asked had to do with the term “right livelihood.” I was interested in how people responded to it as a possible name for the course. 

I found it quite interesting that a number of people didn’t seem to realize that the term is a Buddhist one.  It’s part of the “Noble Eightfold Path” — eight precepts that all begin with the word “Right.”  

never assume . . .

I assumed that most people who are spiritually-minded would recognize the term, but I was wrong — and we all know what they say about assuming!

“wrong” livelihood?

A number of people objected to the term as they felt it implied that there is a “wrong” way to earn one’s living.  And actually, according to Buddhism, they’re right. (I’m not a practicing Buddhist, so please correct me if I’m wrong here.) The Eight-Fold Path directive is to earn your living in an ethical manner, that does no harm. Specifically, there are injunctions against: trading in weapons; trading in people (slavery or prostitution); trading in meat (including breeding animals for slaughter); trading in alcohol or addictive drugs; trading in any poisonous or toxic product.

All of those would constitute a “wrong” livelihood. We could make our own list of injunctions which, in this day and age, might include things like trading in products that require a huge carbon footprint.  

earn your living with great joy and be of service to the world

The connotation of “right livelihood” today, especially to those of us who came of age in the 60's, is about more than finding an ethical way to do business (as important as that is). It has more to do with earning your living while being of service to the world. And, for me, it assumes that the thing that gives you the most joy is the way you can best be of service to the world. In fact, if something does give you great joy, that’s a significant clue that it is the unique gift you have to offer the world. And the world is waiting for what you have to offer.

“Vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need,” wrote Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner.

What does “right livelihood” mean to you?

(Image above is a detail of the Gaian Tarot Six of Earth.)

Comments

[Bonnie]

To me, "right livelihood" means precisely what you have written here - you have presented a very clear and cogent description of a living body of ethics leading to service as its outreach and outcome. I am not a practicing Buddhist, either, but Buddhist precepts such as the Noble Eightfold Path resonate strongly with me.

[starwalker]

I am not a Buddhist, but a follower of Frigga. To me "right livlihood" means making my living in harmony with the seasons, and in a way that causes me no shame before my Gods.

[Carey]

I am not a buddhist either...the term meant to me pretty much what you wrote. Finding the way of service which gives back to the world equally with what I receive in exchange. Finding the work which brings joy to me, is needed by someone, and is in following with my desire to be of service to Gaia.

[Tracie]

Beautifully said Carey! Right livelihood, to me, is living my life in service to Gaia and all life. It also means knowing myself well and acknowledging the unique contribution that only I (or each one of us) can make. Then finding creative ways to share that unique perspective to encourage life-affirming action from everyone I encounter.
Tracie
http://alchemyfortheearth.com

[joanna]

Bonnie, thank you - I like your term "living body of ethics".

Starwalker, I love your definition of "no shame" and harmony with the seasons.

Carey, I agree with Tracie - so beautifully put.

Tracie, you are so right - we honor our own unique gifts, then find ways to offer it to the world. And I would add, in a way that honors ourselves as well as our community and the planet — which means, IMO, making a decent living instead of struggling.

[Arwen]

Grin, I'll repeat what I've said elsewhere.

I don't like "right" because it makes me think there must be a wrong.

I would challenge that anyone involved in any internet industry is involved in a "wrong" living simply because the computer is not good for the environment. It has heavy metals which are poisonous.

Specifically circuit boards are plasitc with copper, some lead, nickel and zinc and also chromium. Then the batteries are also in play.

So, smile, can I ever have a "right" living if I am online as a business owner?

[Danya]

Well, I guess I'll chime in with a Buddhist perspective.

The Noble Eightfold Path in Buddhist teachings is the way to Nirvana. Each step on the Eightfold path begins with the word "Right". When I think about the use of the word right in this context, I think more of the definition that is synonymous with honorable than I think of "right" vs. "wrong".

There is no moralizing in Buddhism. Even though Buddha makes a lot of suggestions about how to achieve freedom from suffering, he taught everything under a disclaimer:

"Do not believe in anything (simply) because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything (simply) because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it."

Buddha (from the Anguttara Nikaya, Vol. 1 188-193) quoted in The Illustrated Dhammapada on page 57.

If you substitute the word Right for Honorable when studying the Eightfold path, the question becomes "What is Honorable?"

Well, according to Buddhist principles, you decide for yourself. This doesn't mean you get free reign to do whatever you want damn everyone else. With an intention to do no harm, you experiment. You try things on. The point is not to try to be a perfect person. The point is to both look mindfully at what you are doing and to feel secure in the fact that you are acting in the world with honor to the best of your ability. The point is to simply not be lazy about it. The point is to keep in your mind and heart a pure and honorable intention and to live by it.

Here's an example...

Some use Buddhist teaching to say that divination (such as the use of Tarot) is wrong livelihood. I say, "It depends". Are you genuinely trying to help people through your readings or are you intentionally trying to con people? To me, the answer to that question is the distinction between an honorable and a dishonorable livelihood with regard to a Tarot practice.

[joanna]

Arwen, good point. I make most of my living online with the aid of computers, and I still drive a car and ride on airplanes. So my carbon footprint isn't as small as it could be.

Danya, I appreciate the translation of "right" as honorable, and the notion that it's a process and not a final product. Honorable Livelihood, that is. Mmm . . . I like that phrase: "The Process of Honorable Livelihood." :-)

I especially appreciate this sentence: "The point is to both look mindfully at what you are doing and to feel secure in the fact that you are acting in the world with honor to the best of your ability." Thank you.

For me, that means continually challenging myself to reduce my personal carbon footprint more each year.

[Stephanie Arwen Lynch]

Honorable speaks to me as well. I really don't know WHY I have such a huge clog in my gears when it comes to the word "right".

I'm going to meditate on this. Joanna, I think you are an amazingly spiritual woman who seems so very connected to the Earth. I imagine that you live as carefully as possible in our crazy world. It's hard now to not drive or fly or use a computer.

We live in this world so we must operate in it on certain levels, yes? :)

[joanna]

Yes, I think so. I was thinking about Starhawk, who recently taught an Earth Activist Training in our area, and how she has solar panels at her house in the county that fuels her computer — but that doesn't address the composition of the computer itself. Also thought about my friends in Vermont who live off the grid and are on Facebook quite frequently. Al Gore flew around the country when he was promoting An Inconvenient Truth. It seems to me it is almost impossible to be completely "clean and green." We just each need to make our own choices and take a stand where we see fit.

I had a longstanding commitment to eating low on the food chain (no red meat and little chicken or fish) until quite recently when I was diagnosed with severe anemia. I'm now eating red meat again for the first time in years, but I'm buying only grass fed, organic beef from our co-op and local suppliers. So at least I am still taking a stand against corporate meat and the terrible damage that industry inflicts on the environment.

We do the best we can!

[Danya]

Joanna said: We do the best we can!

Yes, exactly. If we are going to use computers (and in this day and age, how can we not) then we can recycle them properly instead of sending them off to landfills.

Living in Michigan, we don't have much public transportation to speak of. I have to drive to get to work every day. No choice. But I can choose how much I drive outside of my commute to and from work. I can choose what kind of car I drive, etc.

The Noble Eightfold Path is something that we grow into not something we have to start living by strictly/100% when we take on the Buddhist path. Just like the precepts, they are our "ultimate goals" not tools we use to beat ourselves over the head and punish ourselves for our lack of perfection.

There is a Gospel song that I think about when I think of this... the chorus goes "We fall down, then we get up." We fall short of our ideals but that that doesn't mean we don't keep trying... We get up, dust ourselves off, and try again.