Right Livelihood Award Puns

This is rough, we all know that. Many industries closing down, sales calls are getting harder, and numbers are plummeting in so many ways.

The ONLY thing that will save your co-workers jobs, your job, keep bread on your table, hell even keep the economy afloat is us salespeople. Right now.

We need to keep the money moving, the products sold, and help our customers.

Our company needs us to push them into the black. Needs.

Right now is a positive time in some ways. So many people higher up are bored, working from their dining room and answering calls, that you would have never been able to reach. Even if it's just touching base and talking a bit about a product, just do it.

Godspeed, and hope everybody is safe. Wash your hands, wear a mask.

Good luck ☺

21 [F] from the east coast, junior at a non-target school majoring in finance, just got an internship at a big investment bank in research, was in foster care for a while, mom was a heroin addict, father is a psychopath & poster child for police brutality, great home life now with my mom & stepdad, ADHD & depression, used to be addicted to pills when i was 13-14, now i’ma 4.0 student and am way too involved. life’s been a wild ride, but there’s a few topics to get some thoughts flowing if you’re curious.

My worry is just that doing so could encourage more people to come to that bar, increasing alcohol sales. At the same time you would be earning money from a business that sells alcohol. So would doing this violate right livelihood?

I work for a company in the pharmaceutical industry.

My understanding is that part of Right Livelihood is to not earn a living off the suffering of other beings.

The controversial side of the pharmaceutical industry is the testing that is performed on animals which is done so by law to avoid incidents like the thalidomide tragedy.

So here we using animals at will to propel scientific research for health and monetary benefit.

But the other side of the coin is that without this research people, including children, will die of cancer etc.

I think the conundrum is clear. I’d like to know what others feel.

I have recently decided to try to follow the teachings of Buddha in my life, and I am a bit concerned with right livelihood. In my personal life, I've decided to become vegetarian to reduce suffering in others; however, professionally, I am a cook and have to work with meat. Is this conflicting? Should I try to find a new job at a vegetarian establishment?

About two years ago, I experienced adverse physical reactions following sexual activity, all of which indicate POIS. I concluded that this isn't psychologically induced by experimenting with it for about six months. I have gone to and asked different physicians regarding this matter, which did not help. Attempting to adapt to my situation, I settled on several dated ideologies and methods until I realized that I was complicating things. Instead of trying to solve it, I began observing it for what it is, and it has not been an issue for me. However, I realized that my ambitions were based on wanting power and prestige, which, to me, seems interconnected with sexuality. So now my motivation is gone, and I am not sure how to proceed. I am a graduate student waiting to go back to school in the fall. I’ve been pondering about the complication of earning a living since I don’t see it the same way that I used to. There is uncertainty in how to move forward because ambition is what primarily drove me. I am still new to Buddhism, and I have not been able to grasp what right livelihood is. So, how is it possible to pursue work and earn a living with ambition?

Right, see title post

First, so we can all remember, how the sutta’s define it: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-ajivo/index.html

Choice quotes include: “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.”

Remember that monks often take vows not to touch or hold money.

“And what is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, & pursuing gain with gain. This is wrong livelihood...”

“A lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison."

Now within this context, can retail workers at fast food joints be within right livelihood? It seems to me, clearly not. I just put in my notice to leave my current retail job, in no small part due to peddling meat and caffeine. You can’t tell me caffeine isn’t a drug when I’ve snorted it in powder form, it is a drug.

“Wrong livelihood for contemplatives ... reading marks on the limbs [e.g., palmistry]; reading omens and signs; interpreting celestial events [falling stars, comets]; interpreting dreams; reading marks on the body [e.g., phrenology]; reading marks on cloth gnawed by mice; offering fire oblations, oblations from a ladle, oblations of husks, rice powder, rice grains, ghee, and oil; offering oblations from the mouth; offering blood-sacrifices; making predictions based on the fingertips; geomancy; laying demons in a cemetery; placing spells on spirits; reciting house-protection charms; snake charming, poison-lore, scorpion-lore, rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore; fortune-telling based on visions; giving protective charms; interpreting the calls of birds and animals ... [The list goes on and on]”

It seems here there is a prescription against the performance of what we can broadly call “magick” as a form of livelihood. So, professional tarot readers and astrologers are practicing wrong livelihood then. Certainly one can consider this to be a prescription against those practices entirely, yet I don’t think that necessarily follows.

In two following sections the Buddha addresses people talking about how being an actor and a soldier respectively is purported to bring them to a similar afterlife (Valhalla type deal or laughing deva realm), the Buddha tells them no, they are

Right livelihood can be difficult to achieve. One could argue that it's not possible to ever master right livelihood, as there is no universal law that defines how much saving could be considered greedy, what it means for a business to operate unethically (there seems to be some grey area in the business world), etc.. Some aspects of right livelihood might be fairly objective- if you must steal or lie or harm others to make your living, that is universally considered immoral. Otherwise, it seems very subjective.

This morning I thought about how to establish right livelihood in the U.S., a very individualistic culture. As a young and healthy person who recently finished school, it is expected of me by almost all of my friends and family to become self-sustaining. Naturally we all rely on others to sustain ourselves, but when it comes to housing, clothing, feeding myself, my most basic needs, I am expected to not rely on anyone other than the people I work with, my landlord, etc. I would only be considered worthy of receiving help from friends and family if I demonstrated that I was spending 10+ hours a day trying to secure a job(s) that can support me. For this reason, I think it makes sense to go out and find whatever opportunities are available to me regardless of what the job is, as long as the job isn't clearly harmful. I need to get a job first, and then if it does not exactly fit my interpretation of right livelihood, I can start looking for another job. What I should not do is wait until the perfect "right livelihood" job comes along to start working, because it may never come. It seems that right livelihood is something to constantly refine, and we may have to make some compromises and work with society even if society as a whole appears to have a skewed sense of morality. My opinion on this is ultimately just another view to let go of. We can't always create work for ourselves, and especially if we live in a small town and can't afford to go to college or ordain in a monastery, we may only have a handful of viable career opportunities.

Don't worry if you struggle to establish right livelihood because it isn't entirely in our control. I have been very worried about this because I desire deeply to make a living in a wholesome way, but I shouldn't worry so much. Thanks for reading.

Hi all,

What is considered right livelihood for lay followers are:

Not doing business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison.( https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-ajivo/index.html )

But if we take a look at the bigger picture, there are many livelihoods can be considered harmful. For example, fried food increases cancer risk. If you are doing furniture business, the flame retardant and/or other chemical in the furniture increases risk of cancer, immune dysfunction and hormone disruption, there are also hormone disruption chemicals in plastic bottles, the list goes on.

How do you define right livelihood when in fact they are causing harm? Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: Website address parenthesis

I’m a farmer. How about you?

Greetings, namaste.

I have been overwhelmed by the positive changes in my life that have come almost as a side effect to seeking refuge in the triple gem. I have only started on this path for about a year. I know I have much to learn and come here seeking advice. I am in school to become a doctor, that is my goal, I think that career is right livlihood, I'm not questioning that. But, my current job I work as a cook in a sports bar and have been approached by my boss to become a server/bartender because we have an excess of cooks atm and a deficit of servers. The sports bar I work at is always busy so it would most likely be a pay raise over all even if I worked less hours. On top of that the hours would be better for my college education but I am torn because I would be selling and distributing intoxicants (alchohol) which is against one of the precepts. I come here seeking advice in the thought process of is it better to find a new job and start over again but with something that is within right livelihood? Or should I practice patience and live by the generosity of others (tips) until I finish my degree and get an internship in a hospital. Thank you I appreciate any and all advice, if this was the wrong place to post this I apologise.