Skillful Livelihood (aka Right Livelihood)
Part I
"A lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in living beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison."
Anguttara Sutta, V. 177"
The Buddha’s instructions for right livelihood for lay people may be the most straightforward of all instructions given in connection with the Eightfold Path. Many have come to this practice and deliberated whether we were engaged in skillful livelihood. It is tempting when we are bored, having difficulty with co-workers, or otherwise challenged in the workplace to question the path we’ve taken in our work. If you have questions about your work, remember (as we have seen in our investigation of skillful action) that the test is to register the persistent effects of our work or workplace on the mind. If the mind is consistently unsettled or uneasy, investigate the mind state. What are its causes or conditions? Does it change? Can we bring loving friendliness to this mind state? Metta meditation changes the conditions that prompted the mind state; when conditions change, the mind state will change. Let your workplace become your laboratory for experiment and investigation.
"You tell me to stand still, but I am not walking," he shouted, "whereas you who are walking say you are still. How is it that you are standing still but I am not?"
The Buddha turned round. "My legs move but my mind is still," he said. "Your legs are still but your mind moves all the time in a fire of anger, hatred, and feverish desire. Therefore, I am still but you are not."
Majjhima Nikaya
Part II
Bhante Gunaratana states, “If you lack harmful intentions, your mind will not be harmed by a job’s adverse consequences.”
Do you agree/disagree with this statement? Once again we are asked to examine our intentions and their role in relationship
to an important aspect of our lives.
Warm regards,
Deb
More quotes on work:
The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.
--Richard Bach
Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
--Johnny Carson (1925 - 2005)
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
--James M. Barrie (1860 - 1937)
Getting fired is nature's way to telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place.
--Hal Lancaster, in The Wall Street Journal
