The Eightfold Noble Path—Right View, Right Intention (WISDOM), Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood (ETHICAL CONDUCT), Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration (MENTAL DEVELOPMENT)

Right livelihood is the 3^rd of the three moral or ethical principles of the eightfold noble path of Buddhism. The other two are right speech and right action. The principle is that one earns one’s living legally, peacefully and in a manner that brings no harm to others. At first glance this seems sane, obvious and not that difficult. The Buddha specifically pointed out that dealing in weapons, living beings (including raising animals for slaughter, the slave trade and prostitution), working in meat production and butchery and selling intoxicants and poisons like alcohol and drugs brings harm to others. He also said that any means of livelihood that violated right speech and right action is to be avoided.
The means of livelihood is a major component of each of our lives. For most people, the work we do takes up more time and energy than anything else and has an enormous impact on our lives and, since all things and people are connected, on the lives of our families, friends, communities and the world at large. If we are sitting each morning as a means of developing compassion and understanding in ourselves and building atomic bombs or tending bar in the afternoons, we are going to have some conflicts within ourselves. Those conflicts create suffering for ourselves, defeat our practice, and, in turn, inflict suffering on the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh has written: “Our vocation can nourish our understanding and compassion, or erode them. We should be awake to the consequences, far and near, of the way we earn our living.”
And it is not just the effect of our own means of livelihood on our inner selves and, consequently, the compassion, understanding and suffering that we (literally) project on the world. Each of us is affected by the individual members of our families, the people around us, our communities and the world. All of them, in turn, are affected by their means of livelihood. I like Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective on Right Livelihood—vocation can nourish or erode.
Since everything is connected, including the people of a modern civilization, absolute purity in Right Livelihood is probably impossible. Even if we don’t build atomic bombs, some well-intentioned teacher taught the bomb maker nuclear physics; a farmer grew the food he eats; a carpenter built the house he lives in; a mechanic fixes the automobile he drives to work; a ski instructor gives him lessons on the hill—-and all of them are paid with the money the bomb maker earns making bombs. Since atomic bombs (so far) are only made by nations and not individuals, the money that pays the bomb maker comes from the taxes of ordinary citizens—you and me.
While building atomic bombs is an extreme example of the Buddha’s warning against bringing harm to others, it illustrates the interconnectedness of all things, including Right Livelihood. It shows that our personal spiritual efforts and accomplishments are entwined with the secular world at every level and that principles are living organisms that guide us in life; they are not written in stone; they are not pure in the Fundamentalist sense that, it seems to me, justifies and in truth inspires much of the violence and suffering in the world.
I’ll end with a perspective (with which I don’t necessarily agree, but which I hope will inspire some thought and discussion) from a Chinese Chan (Zen) master of the 20^th century named Hsu Yun, about a man struggling to determine what is Right Livelihood?:

“…he cannot earn his living through ‘cheating.’ (Uh, Oh. That lets out used cars, aluminum siding, politics and TV evangelism.) The more he thinks about it, the shorter his list gets.
“And so he and the rest of us are all left wondering just what does Right Livelihood mean?
“Most religious commentators avoid answering such questions. And nobody can query a book.
“What is necessary, here, is common sense. Religious professionals who earn their living from the donations of working members of their congregations can afford to be angelically employed. Having no family responsibilities to anchor them to earthly reality, they can afford to float above such defilements. (And while we are on the subject, it is shocking to see how easily The Pure accept ‘dirty’ money. A whore can go from the crib to the pew and if her trick receipt is put in the collection box, it is welcomed. This, of course, is true of any religion. None is fussy about a donation’s provenance.)
“Therefore, the solution we apply to the problem of Right Livelihood is simple: A Buddhist may earn his living in any way that is honest and legal. He may sell guns… but not to someone he reasonably suspects is insane or who intends to use the gun for a criminal purpose. He may be a vegetarian and a cowboy… a shoemaker, a butcher, a soldier, a bartender, and, lest there be any doubt, he may even be the man who throws the switch on someone legally condemned to die. If he doesn’t approve of capital punishment, he doesn’t have to take the job.”