What is this critical Right Livelihood?
The Noble Eightfold Way,
leading to Nibbāna, is simply this:
Right View,
Right Motivation,
Right Speech,
Right Action,
Right Livelihood,
Right Effort,
Right Awareness,
and
Right Concentration.
But
what is Right Livelihood?
The
5-fold Definition of Right Livelihood:
1: Earning a living not
involving any trading with Living Beings.
2: Earning a living not
involving any selling of Meat,
Fish, or Flesh.
3: Earning a living
not involving any selling of any form of Weapons.
4: Earning a living
not involving any dealing with Alcohol, or illegal Drugs.
5: Earning a living
not involving any selling of any form of Poison.
That is Right Livelihood!
The Characterization of Right Livelihood
for lay people:
Any livelihood that neither involves any killing, injuring, harming,
nor any forced
imprisoning of any living being, nor stealing, taking what is not given,
cheating,
any bribery, or corruption, or lying, or false deceiving, tricks,
nor
use of false
measures and weights, neither sensual, nor any sexual abuse,
neither the use
or selling of alcohol, nor of intoxicating illegal drugs, that causes
carelessness,
neither by oneself, nor by getting, nor inciting other employed beings to do so,
such is Right Livelihood!
The Explanation of Right Livelihood for Buddhist Monks
and Nuns:
Neither living, nor receiving food by astrology, soothsaying, prediction of
future
events, nor by palmistry, geomancy, dream-reading, charms and spells,
amulets or
fake
divination, nor by any rituals, running errands or messages, political
flatter,
arranging
marriages, funerals or divorces, medical praxis, nor by producing art,
nor
poetry, nor
by professional disputation, nor debate, this is Right Livelihood!
Knowing right and wrong Livelihood
as right and wrong Livelihood, is Right View.
Awareness of presence of right and wrong Livelihood, is Right Awareness.
Exchanging wrong Livelihood with right Livelihood, is Right Effort...
Further study of Buddhist Right
Livelihood (Samma-Ajivo):
https://what-buddha-said.net/library/ati_website/html/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-ajivo/index.html
